Is time really enough?
by FreshInc
Summary: It's been seven years since the war and Hermione and Ginny have moved different ways. Hermione is depressed and Ginny is doing her bwest to ignore Hermione. After a misunderstanding, they meet again. Can they repair what was broken all that time ago?
1. New beginning

_**A/N: Okay, so this is my second story. Sort of. I'm working on two stories at the moment. Now, I have a few chapters written already, but please let me know if there is anything I need to change or whatever. I would like to have one of those beta-readers to this story too, any voulenteers? Anyway, this story takes place nearly seven years after the war, Ginny has told Hermione to bug off, and things are a little difficult.**_

_**Each chapter will be viewed from different angles, mostly Ginny and Hermione, but every once a while, someone else will be telling the story. But don't worry, I'll make sure to tell you who is telling. For the first chapter, it's Hermione.**_

_**Now, please read this, and let me know what you think :) This will be a long story, that's the only thing I can tell for sure right now.**_

_**Oh, and this is very important; the title is just a temporary one, please come with suggestions :)**_

I was walking trough the streets of London. The weather was terrible with the cold wind and rain. I pulled my jacket closer around myself, seriously considering to throw a weather spell. I quickly shook my head and threw that idea away. First of all, the muggles would definitely notice, it was late September, of course they would notice if the sun suddenly came and started to shine bright. Second of all, for the past 6 and a half years, I haven't done magic, not since the war.

It's been almost 7 years since the last war ended. And everyone was happy when it was all over, for good. I was very happy about it too, I just didn't deal with it very well.

_- flashback-_

"Voldemort is dead! The war is finally over", McGonagall screamed. She looked like she was moments away from breaking in to some kind of a crazy dance of victory.  
>It was like time stood still. Nobody could quite believe what they had just been trough or what McGonagall was saying. Everyone shared the same thought, "could it really be over? Just like that? Could it be that easy?" The cheering broke loose for real when they saw Harry return. Once again Harry Potter was the hero who saved the world.<p>

All of us who had minor injuries was lined up outside madam Pomfrey's office for a check, just to make sure we all were in one piece. The ones with more severe injuries was sent to St. Mungo right away to be taken care of properly. In the chaos nobody had noticed that a red headed student had ran the opposite direction, away from everyone and everything. Nobody but Hermione Granger. Surly people would notice if one the "heroes" of the day were gone, but right now, all she could think of was to find that red headed girl.  
>Hermione ran towards the great hall, she was sure that the girl would be there, mourning over her older brother. Hermione was right. The moment she walked in to the great hall, she could hear silent sobbing, the sound was echoing trough the entire hall, making it difficult to hear where the sound came from in the first place, so she just turned towards left where she knew the body of Fred Weasly was. There she was, hanging over his body, sobbing. Hernione walked slowly over to them, not quite sure if she should be there or not. She decided to walk over there and be a good friend and support her best friend. She was suprised that none of the other Weasly's was there. But of course, Ron and Bill had been sent off to St. Mungo. Why Ron had been sent off, she wasn't sure, but Harry was on his way there too, so maybe all three of them was supposed to go, and she could understand that, after all they had been trough quite a lot the past year.<p>

Hermione sat down next to the red headed girl and put one arm around her. She wanted to pull her closer and just hold her there until everything was better.  
>Ginny Weasly, the sobbing red head, leaned closer to Hermione and sobbed louder. They sat like this for a while, not saying a word. Hermione continued to rub her hand up and down Ginny's back, soothing her. After a while Hermione spoke. "Don't worry Gin, everything is gonna be just fine.. well, better, at least. I'm always here for you, I swear." All of a sudden, Ginny's sobbing stopped completely. She turned slowly towards Hermione. When she was looking in to Hermiones face, she wasn't sure what would happen next. Hermione looked down in to Ginny's eyes. Hermione became scared, really scared. The anger in her eyes were something Hermione never had seen in her eyes. Hermione could easly imagine her head catch fire. But she couldn't understand why Ginny was so angry towards her.<p>

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

"W-what?.."

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT. YOU AND STUPID HARRY AND THAT IDIOT OF A BROTHER I HAVE, RON! YOU BETTER GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME VERY SOON BEFORE I HEX YOUR BRAINS OUT!"

"Ginerva Molly Weasly! What the hell have I done wrong? I was just trying to be your friend since all of your family seems to have dissapeared. Tell what wrong I have done to you!"

Hermione held Ginny's wrists in an attempt to stop her from reaching for her wand and hex her with some scary curse. Ginny just glared at Hermione, breathing heavily from her anger. She looked like she was about to attack Hermione, not even bothering to get her wand. Hermione just looked at Ginny with confusion written all over her face. Ginny just smiled, but it wasn't her usual smile. This smile was terrifying, almost crazy. It looked like she had reached the edge and fallen over really bad, like she had gone completely crazy. The didn't fight against Hermiones grip around her wrists, just took a small step towards her and spoke calmly and with a voice ice cold;

"All of this is your fault, all three of you. And if you have to ask what I'm talking about, you should be ashamed of your self. Now let go of me, and never speak to me ever again, just get the hell out of my life".

Hermione just stared at the younger witch with a blank expression, not quite sure to believe her own ears.

"Don't say that. You don't mean it. I love you, you can't leave me"she begged, barely whispering. Hermiones eyes filled with tears as she looked in to Ginny's eyes. She could tell that Ginny meant every word she said.

Hermione found this look scary and couldn't do anything else, the just froze, letting her tears fall before she whispered again, "I love you".

Ginny just glared at her while she jerked her hands away from Hermiones now weak grip before she said; "I don't bloody care what you say or feel. You don't deserve to feel. Now get the fuck away from me and never speak to me again!"

_- end flashback-_

Almost seven years had passed since that day, and I could still remember every word she had said me. It was the last words she spoke to me. That day, I swore to stay away from the magic world. With only a few exceptions, that is. The first few months I had managed to live completely as an muggle in London. I have no idea how I made it, but I did. But after a few months I noticed how the war had affected me, no muggle alcoholic beverage had been strong enough to let me forget the things I had been trough, and no muggle medication either. I couldn't see a muggle shrink either, that would only get me locked up for the rest of my life for sure. So I decided to see an healer and get some kind of help dealing with my trauma that way. I also realized that I probably could use firewhiskey as a temporary solution until the healer could help me somehow. It didn't take long after that when I realized that I didn't have an adress to Ginny, and I needed to talk to her. So I got an owl as well. And then, after a couple of years I received an owl from an anonymous person who sent me a quiddich magazine. It confused me until I had looked trough a couple of pages. There was a picture of Ginny on a broom with the headline "is this the next quiddich star?"  
>But I will get back to this article soon enough.<br>It had only been about 6 months after the war was finished, I had just bought an owl because I wanted to send Ginny a letter. Besides I could use the owl to order firewhiskey from the diagon alley so I wouldn't have to go there myself.  
>The very same day as I bought the owl (who I gracefully enough had named "Ginerva") I sat down by my kitchen table and started to write a letter to Ginny;<p>

_Dear Ginny_

No, I scratched that.

_Hello, Ginerva_

No, scratched that too.

_Dearest Ginerva_

Nope, once again I scratched what I had written.

_fuck it.. look Ginny, I understand that you don't want to hear from me, hell, you probably don't want to read this letter either, but I'm writing it anyway. You see, I have a hope that some day you will talk to me again. I want you to know that what I, Ron and Harry did last year, was necessary. If we hadn't done it, you may not have been alive, probably your entire family would have been killed by now. Instead you lost one brother, one fought and died for your freedom, your familys freedom. Please Ginny, I beg you to talk to me again. It's been 6 months since you last spoke to me, and it's killing me. I love you. You are my very best friend, and I can't live without you much longer. Please speak to me. _  
><em> - Love Hermione<em>

When I read trough the letter after I was finished, I figured it was quite pathetic, but I didn't really care about it, the point was to get Ginny to speak with me again, and I was prepared to do anything to get it my way.  
>A couple of days later, my owl came back without my letter, that could only near that she had received it. Ad the owl came closer in to view, I could see that it was bringing a letter back. Fuck, didn't she get the letter after all? When the owl landed in my window, I could see that it wasn't my letter it returned with. There was nothing written on the outside of it to show any evidence of who had sent it, but I was fairly sure Ginny actually had replied. My hands was shaking when I released the letter from the owl and carefully opened the envelope and pull out the letter.<p>

_Hermione,_  
><em>Do you remember me saying that I never wanted to speak with you ever again? Well, maybe I wasn't specific enough, but that goes for letters as well. I never want to ever have anything to do with you ever again? Understand? Now leave me alone!<em>  
><em>Ginny<em>

This was breaking my heart. How could she do this to me? We were always there for each other, would she really just throw it away like that? I felt a tear run down my cheek, this was just too painful. I decided to hide the letter in a box in some corner of my closet, I just wasn't ready to throw it away yet.  
>A couple of months later I decided it was time to try to get Ginny to speak with me again.<p>

_Dear Ginny,_  
><em>You probably don't want this letter either, and I'm fully aware of what you said about you never want to have anything to do with me ever again. But still I live on the hope of you regretting those words. I know I can never make things the way they used to be again, but please, just speak with me again, you are too important to me to loose, I won't let you walk away just like that, I care too much about you to do something like that. Please talk to me again.<em>  
><em>Love Hermione<em>

Also this time, the owl returned with a letter from Ginny;

_Look Hermione, I don't know what the fuck is wrong with you, but you better stay away or I'll come over there and hex your brains out, I'm not joking. I don't want you to be a part of my life anymore, so stay away!_

Ginny had clearly been angry when she wrote that last letter, her handwriting was showing how much she had been shaking, making the letter almost unreadable.  
>I couldn't help it, I just had to answer her, even though the more rational part of my mind told me not to. "Oh, shut up", I muttered to myself under ny breath.<p>

_Dear Ginny,_  
><em>The reason why I keep ignoring your request to stay away from you, is because I want to fight for you. I won't let you walk out on me like that, not until you have heard what I have to say! Please talk to me, listen to what I have to say, and I'll stay away for as long as you wish. Please Ginny, I'm begging you<em>  
><em>Love Hermione<em>

I didn't hear from Ginny again. I kept sending her letters about twice a month, I still do, more than 6 years later, begging her to listen to me. I'm sure I could have written what I wish to tell her in a letter, but I'm not even sure if she reads my letters anymore, or if she just throws them away unopened.

I had been sending her letters for about a year and a half when I received an anonymous owl. I didn't know who's it was, I had never seen it before, but it was an private one. Someone sent me a quiddich magazine. There was a short note there too;

_Hermione,_  
><em>You should take a look at this, you might find someone you know<em>

There was no signature, just those words. I looked at the magazine with disgust and looked at the letter again. There was something familiar with the writing, I just couldn't remember who it was, and the owl had already left, so I couldn't write back and ask. I sighed and opened the magazine on the first page and scanned quickly trough it. There was nothing. It was the same for the next couple of pages. I sighed loudly when I turned the next page, thinking this was a waste of time. Then, when I turned the next page, I almost fainted. With large letters on the top of the page it said;

**_Is this the next quiddich star?, _**

underneath it was a large picture of Ginny Weasly. She smiled and waved to the camera. Under the picture was an article about her.

_Ginerva Molly Weasly (20), our next big quiddich star? Ginerva (mostly known as Ginny) graduated from Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardly last year. When she entered her final school year, she was assigned the position of captain of the school quiddich team Gryffindor. She lead her team to victory in every single match and had what is believed to be the best quiddich team in the history of the school. At her last match, a scout for almost every team in Britain was present as they had heard of her skills, both as a chaser and as a leader, they all wanted her for their team. At last she decided she wanted to sign for the Holyhead harpies, worlds only team with women only. She signed with them before she even was finished school and had her first training session with them two days after she graduated. And today she has been very important in her teams victory against the Chudley canons._

**_Ginerva, what made you decide to sign with the Holyhead harpies last year?_**

_Please, Gilbert, call me Ginny. Bit to answer your question, I decided to sign with the Holyhead harpies because they have always been my favorite team. When I was a little girl and stole my brothers brooms to practice flying, I always used to pretend that I was playing on their team, dreaming about doing it some day. So when I was offered a place on their team as a third reserve, it was an easy decision to make. I never expected to get this much play time, so when they decided to put me on the startteam, I was really excited about it. I'm just happy I could be on the team today and play at all._

**_Ginny, do you think that your role in the victory today will give you a permanent place at the start team next season?_**

_Well, Gilbert, that is hard to tell. This was just one game, and that is not nearly enough to get a place like that. Besides, we have 3 great players occupying the positions already, so we all will just have to wait and see what happens_

I just stared at the article, I really didn't know what to believe. Ginny playing professional quiddich? I mean, I always believed she would play professional quiddich, I just couldn't believe she did it already, not so quickly after school. It was a shock, but at the same time it wasn't. Maybe it wad because she apparently had got big quite fast.  
>All thought I never had much interest in quiddich, I got a hold of a gameplan and an magic radio, that way I could follow every game her team played. I always wrote her a letter after the games, telling her what I thought of it. She still didn't answer my letters, it was more out of habit and a desperate wish to get her to speak to me again. But I never heard a word from her.<p>

Today, as I was walking back home, I couldn't stop thinking of her. I missed her so badly. Over the years I had told her how I used to be and still was in love with her. I was on my way home from St. Mungo. I had been there fir my weekly appointment with the healer who helped me though the trauma I suffered from after the war. Today's theme was Ginny, what she had said to me in the great hall, and what she had written in the two letters she had written me all those years ago. I found it quite embarrassing that I stick needed help so many years later. It had been almost seven years, it was about time to get over it. I just wish it was that easy.  
>When I got home I threw my jacket in a chair and went over to my refrigerator to find a large bottle of firewhiskey, I decided to skip the glass, I just needed to get drunk fast. This last session had been one of the worst so far. Didn't realise how much Ginny had hurt ne until today. I decided to write her a letter, letting her know that I was giving up.<p>

_Ginny,_  
><em>This is my last letter to you, maybe to anyone. I had an appointment with that healer again today, I got back from there just now. In today's session we spoke about you. I realised then that what I do is holding me back. Therefore I have decided to give up. I have been fighting for you for more than six years now, and it has gotten me nowhere. I don't really wish to do this, but I can't keep this going. I am really sorry for all the pain I might have given you the past six and a half years. I'm really, truly sorry for everything. Just remember this, I love you. I always have, and I always will. My heart never belonged to anyone else. I love you.<em>  
><em>I guess this is my last goodbye, then.<em>  
><em>Always yours,<em>  
><em>Hermione<em>

I sent the letter, emptied the last remains of the firewhiskey, locked the door and went to bed, drunk and crying.


	2. First visit

_**A/N: Alright. Here's another chapter. I won't be uploading a new one each day, though, I just felt like being nice and stuff. Now, this chapter is from Ginny's POV, how she experienced recieveing Hermiones last letter.**_

_**So please enjoy this, and look out for the next chapter, I'll upload it sometime soon :)**_

_I guess this is my last goodbye, then_

"What the bloody hell?" I shouted out loud as I read those words. A couple of my teammates, Cary and Fiona looked up at me as they heard my shout. "What's the matter, Gin?" Fiona asked.  
>I was muttering under my breath when I answered her "nothing, it's nothing". I looked up at them when I spoke the next words,<br>"look, I need to run. Tell Jessie she is taking my duties as captain tomorrow if I'm not back by tomorrow morning. I'll send you an owl if there I have to stay away tomorrow, but hopefully I'm back sometime tonight."

I flooed back to the Burrow and found both my parents in the kitchen.  
>"Ginny? I wasn't expecting you back yet? How are you darling?" My mum said surprised as I walked out of the fireplace, right in to my mum's embrace.<br>"I'm fine mum. I just need to speak with dad outside for a moment."  
>Dad looked confused when I said this. This rarely happened that I had to speak with him like this. I also suspect that I might have looked a little upset or something from the worried look on his face when we got outside.<br>"Id there something wring, Ginny? You have me quite worried when you act like this. Usually you take your time to talk to your mom, no matter..." I interrupted him, I had no time for this Smalltalk. "Look, dad. I know you are off work for the night, but I really need a favor of you. I got another letter from Hermione a few minutes ago. I need to know where it came from, I'm worried about her. I think she's going to kill herself or something, I beg you, dad. This has gone too far, now. I need to speak with her" I begged. I was on my knees, begging him to trace the letter. It wasn't the first time, but it wad going to be the last. I had broken her heart for long enough now, it was time to let go of my grudge against her now. I sat on the ground sobbing when dad turned around and went inside to tell mum that we went to the ministry for a while, and that he would explain later, this was urgent and he had no time.

We apparated in the ministry a few moments later and ran up to the minister's office in just a few moments. Dad knocked while he was catching his breath. "Come in" a voice called, from inside the office.  
>"Kingsley, how are you? It's been too long. You should come over for dinner again soon. How long is it since the last time you did? A month? Anyways, remember Ginny? Of course you do. She needs your help."<br>"Is that so? Well, what may I help you with, miss Weasly?" Kingsley looked at me while he spoke with a small smile playing on his lips, like it always did.  
>"You see, Mr. Minister, I have been receiving these letters for the past six and a half years that I for personal reasons haven't replied to, but tonight I received one that had me a little worried, and I need to go to her as soon as possible. I need to know if you can trace this letter for me right away?" I said in an incredible speed while waving the letter in front of his face.<br>"Miss Weasly, I would be happy to help you, but I'm sure you understand that the man who deals with this has returned home for the night. Why don't you come back first thing tomorrow morning, and I'll have him take care of it before he starts anything else." He smiled apologetically ad he said this. I could feel my heart dripping to the bottom of my stomach. I backed up a few steps, knowing that there was a wall close by. I sunk to the floor when I reached it, not quite sure what I was going to do next. I had to know tonight, it could be too late already, and I didn't want to waste any more time not knowing. Kingsley and dad both looked at me with worried expressions. "Look, miss Weasly. How important is this?" Kingsley asked. I glared at him. Would I be here, this close to one of our most important games this year, if it wasn't important? I spoke as calmly as I possibly could, "Yes, minister. This is really important. This girl, might be dead because of me, and I don't want to waste more time than necessary. But never mind, I'll find her on my own if you won't help me." I rose slowly while I glared at the minister at the same time I tried to figure out how to find Hermione. Yes, I might have been tracing her letters occasionally the past years, but each time she had been living a mew place, all over the country.  
>I was halfway through a thought where I was about to decide to visit the last residence I knew she had stayed, a place in Surrey, (What on earth she was doing there, I couldn't tell, but that was the place I was going. It had been more than a year since last I had traced her, but at least it was a place to start.) When the minister spoke; "miss Weasly, what makes you think this person can be dead because of you?" He was worried now, I think I was about to get him to do it. "I believe this could be because of the letter I received today where some of her final words were <em>"I guess this is my last goodbye, then<em>." I don't know what she has dome it will do, but I won't take any risks, so if you'll have me excused, I have to find someone" I said as I turned around to leave.  
>"Wait, miss Weasly. I will floo him and see if I can get him to help you. I can't promise anything, but I will ask. Now, if you'll excuse me for a couple of minutes while I contact him, I would appreciate it." Kingsley spoke as he gestured towards the door and turned himself to the fireplace.<br>A few minutes went by while we waited outside the office. I couldn't sit still, not with the hope of finding Hermione and see what she was up to. When the door opened again, Kingsley walked out first, followed by a short man, " miss Weasly, I assume you remember Mr. Kling?" I smiled, possibly the biggest smile I have ever smiled. We walked towards Mr. Klings office where I handed him the letter. It took about an hour to get the letter traced to its origins, but he made it happen. He wrote the address on a piece of parchment and handed it to me. I read the note; _miss. Granger. Tatcherstreet 54, floor 5 apartment 509  
><em>I stared at the note. "Are you bloody serious? She lives here? In London? Just a couple of blocks away? Is this some kind of a bad joke? This has to be a joke, a really bad one" I was just talking. This couldn't be possible, just a couple of blocks away? Just a few blocks away from my own apartment here in London? This wasn't possible, it couldn't be.  
>I just stared at all three of them, not quite sure what to believe. With no explanation or another word, I turned around and ran outside, forgetting all about my ability to do magic, I ran towards Tatcherstreet 54, apartments 509.<br>I arrived there a couple of minutes later, all the running laps around the quidditch pitch finally was good for something. As I arrived there, I ran straight to the door and found myself rather surprised that it wasn't locked. I ran the stairs, faster than I had ran anything before. As I reached the fifth floor, I looked around to locate apartment 509. There, at the end of the hall I saw it. With large, golden letters it said _**509**_. Next to the door was a small sign with her name on it, _Hermione Granger_ just plain simple. I HAD to laugh a little when I saw the little picture next to her name, it was a little witch on a broom. Suddenly I remembered what I was doing here, but at the same time I also remembered that I had been ignoring her for the past six years, well, ignoring her letters, anyways. She had still been on my mind all the time. I regretted the things I had said to her back then, but I didn't have the guts to tell her I was sorry. But now, here I stood, outside her apartment. I wondered if she would forgive me for what I had dome to her. I looked at my watch, noticing that the time wad only 19:45. She was probably still awake. Then I knocked the door.

There was no response. That had me worried. Sure, maybe she was out or something, but I had a feeling she wasn't. The Hermione I used to know would rather stay at home than go out. And when I had read her letters, she never wrote about going out or anything, she told me about how she rather stayed at home with a bottle of firewhiskey by herself. It happened often, at least that was the way I understood it. Maybe too often. Maybe I should have done something sooner. But now was too late. I had always been worried, but I always also thought that it wouldn't get to this, not with her getting help from that healer. I was scared now, really scared. I reached for the doorknob, it was unlocked. I went inside and looked. I was in a hallway with another door in the other end. I walked to that door and knocked it, just in case. Still no answer. I opened the door slowly, scared of what I would find on the other side of the door. I couldn't see her there either. The only thing I could see, was things, lots of them. Mostly empty firewhiskey bottles and clothes, but she also had a lot of books and... quidditch magazines? What the hell? Since when did she care about quidditch? I noticed that the collection included several different magazines. It had to be hundreds of magazines there. What the hell had happened to her? I picked up a couple of the magazines and went through them quickly. I noticed that parts was missing, sometimes it was whole pages, several at times, even, and sometimes it was just pieces of pages gone. "What the bloody hell?" I muttered under my breath. I didn't understand a thing about this. Did she live with someone else? Or maybe it was the wrong apartment, even.  
>"Hermione? Are you here?" I asked, barely loud enough for her to hear. "Hermione?" I asked again as I opened another door. This one seemed to lead to a bedroom.<p> 


	3. Dreams and magic

_**A/N: Alright, third chapter up already. I am way too kind with this. But how can I not be, with reviews and stuff? It's just fun to check in on my e-mail and noticing how someone new has given me some kind of response, even just by adding my story to their alert list. But still, I live off reviews, so please review, and make my day better : ) And for all of you who have reviewed, thank you so much, it's really great that you like my story already. I hope I won't disappoint you in the future : )  
>Now, please enjoy the next chapter. It's from Hermione's POV : )<strong>_

Someone was in my apartment. Why the fuck were there someone in my apartment? And how the hell did they get in? I hadn't heard any locks being broken, and I was sure I had locked it before I went to sleep. I looked at the clock who hung on the wall above my desk. It was almost eight in the evening, it was only a couple of hours since I went to bed. Who the fuck would break in to someone's apartment at this time?  
><em>"Hermione? Are you here?"<em>  
>What? Okay, this was apparently someone I knew, but who would visit me now without telling me? Well, who would visit me in the first place? I didn't know many people, I stayed away from them as much as I could after the last letter Ginny sent me. I silently jumped out of the bed and went to my desk, I almost lost my balance at first. I guess I was still drunk, then. I had hidden my wand deep down in my drawer. Even thought I hadn't used it in nearly seven years I kept it, just for situations like these. It felt weird holding it again, weird, but right. Like it belonged there. Silently I ran towards the door and hid behind it. I was ready to ambush who ever the burglar was. They would learn how bad an idea it is to just break in to my apartment. I held my wand ready as the door began to open and the stranger spoke again, <em>"Hermione?"<em>

That voice. It was so familiar, yet it belonged to a stranger, like it was a voice I hadn't heard in years.  
>Someone took a step forward and in to the room. I took a silent step to the right and pointed my wand towards the silhouette while I whispered <em>petrificus totalis.<em>  
>Whoever it was fell to the floor face first, unable to move. I jumped over the stiff body and went for the light. As I turned to see who it was, I almost fainted. I let out a little scream and backed out of room. I walked to the kitchen, numb in my entire body. I wasn't sure if I could breathe. Hell, I wasn't even sure if this is real. Damn! I had to be dreaming. There was no way in hell <em>she<em> could be here. Absolutely no way in hell. I turned to the refrigerator and opened it, searching for a bottle of firewhiskey and emptied about a fourth of it at once. If this was real, I could really need a bottle or two of it. I went back in to my bedroom and prepared to let her have her movement back. I was barely able to walk, the last firewhiskey was really going to my head, and considering that I was drunk already when I woke up, I was surprised I could walk at all.

When I got back, well, she still laid there of course. My heart dropped as I saw her properly. She still looked just the same, with her bright ginger hair, pale skin and freckles. The only thing that had changed, was that she was taller, her hair longer and she was definitely more muscular. She was even more beautiful than I remembered her. I noticed something in her hand, a piece of parchment, my handwriting was visible. I read trough it quickly, it was the letter I had sent only a couple of hours earlier.  
>What the hell? How could she have it already? It wasn't that long since I sent it. This wasn't possible, unless she was nearby already. Does Ginny really live here in London? I sat down on my bed, not quite sure what to think. I sat there for a moment, just thinking about what had just happened. I decided this had to be a dream, there is no way this could be real. I shook my head, I was sure I was dreaming.<br>I looked down at Ginny and muttered the counter spell. She stretched her limbs, getting the movement back properly. She rose and looked at me. It's difficult to describe the look in her eyes, she looked worried, scared, relieved and.. insecure? Ginny Weasly insecure? Well, that's not something you see every day.  
>It was only a moment after she stood up before I spoke, "Well, I've had many dreams of you through the years, usually they repeat themselves, but this one is new. Must say I'm impressed , though, it's by far the most lifelike I've ever had." I took another large sip of firewhiskey. It burned down my throat, but in a good way. I could feel I was getting more and more drunk. It felt good, really good. It made things easier to handle, even if I was dreaming. Ginny took a step towards me, the stood right in front of me now, looking down at me. She had tears in her eyes. As she gently took the bottle of firewhiskey away from me, she whispered; "this isn't healthy for you"<br>"Screw healthy", I replied, a little angry she took away the only thing I felt could save me, right now. Ginny put the bottle on my desk, she had her back turned to me while she spoke;

"you know, Hermione, when I decided to come here tonight, I never expected things to be this bad. I mean, I expected the worst, I was sure I was going to find you dead. But look around you, look at the mess and the filth around you, look at this bottle, it's the largest bottle of firewhiskey you can get, it's a whole litre, and you drink it like it's water, how much have you had to drink today? Never mind, I don't want to know right now. Look at yourself, Hermione. When is the last time you had a haircut? Or a shower for that matter. And look at how skinny you are, do you even eat anything? Christ, Hermione, I expected it to be bad, but not like this".

Ginny turned around to look at me. Tears were falling down her cheeks and her voice was trembling when she spoke. It stung in my heart to see her like this, but I didn't really care. It was just a dream, and this was a painful one, it was so real and this one made Ginny care about her. Therefore I didn't feel bad when I spoke my next words, filling them with as much acid and venom as I possibly could; "Look *Ginerva Weasly*, this really isn't any of your business, is it? It's my life, and nearly seven years ago you told me to get the hell out of your life. Yes, I had a hard time letting go, but I have now. I'm finally getting out of your life, isn't that what you always wanted? Now. Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. My. Apartment! _**NOW,**_ before I hex you. And I must warn you, that spell I used on you, is the first one I have used in nearly 7 years. Who knows, maybe I've gotten a little rusty and mess up a spell? Would you like to stay and find out?" These words broke my soul, but I knew I was just dreaming, so she wouldn't get hurt by my words. She stared at me, her face filled with pure shock. I don't think she was able to say anything, or even move. I just glared at her, breathing heavily.  
><em><strong>"MOVE!<strong>_", I yelled. My voice has never reached a volume like that. Just another proof this was all a dream. She slowly started to move towards my bedroom door. She paused before left and spoke;  
>"I'll leave. But I'll take all alcoholic beverages you have with me for the night. I'll come back tomorrow morning, you'll be sober then. I'll bring these back tomorrow, but we need to speak. Please go back to bed, and I'll see you tomorrow morning. <em>accio alcohol"<em> and then she disapparated. Away from me, away from my dream. I walked to the kitchen to get some firewhiskey, I needed to calm my nerves. Shit, it was nothing there. Oh, right, she took it all with her. Damn. And there was no way I could get a deliverance at this hour.

I decided to go back to bed, this was just too much for me today. I headed back in to my bedroom and went to bed. Hell if I was putting it back in the drawer if she decided to return, I was going to be prepared to hex her brains to madness if she dared to come again. I drifted off to a dreamless sleep, angry with myself for letting me create dreams like this. No, tomorrow morning I would make up, and my refrigerator would contain firewhiskey again, and I would spend another day moping around at work and then get home, get drunk and pass out. Just like I always did.


	4. Letters

_**A/N: Oh joy, another chapter. Well, this one is number four, as you probably already know, and this one is from Ginny's POV. This chapter is a large part reading letters from Hermione.  
>This chapter is a little longer than the others have been so far, but this is about the length that most chapters are from now on.<strong>_

_**Oh, and I had a couple of comments I want to answer while I'm writing this :)**_

_**First one is for "Bigblusku"; The subject of why Ginny has taken so long, has been barely touched so far, but I will go deeper in to her personal reasons of this in later chapters, you will see why :) And no, it's not wrong of you to wish for Hermione to slap her, and I promise you, there will be slapping later on, for what reason, I won't tell you, but you will get your slapping ;)**_

_**And the second comment I wish to answer, is from "Amaranta316"; Flashbacks will be given, well, sort of. Mostly their time since the war will be told trough letters, but I will also write a few flashbacks from their memories, I just need to find suitable places to write them in first :) And about Ginny's and Hermione's relationship, it is very complicated, but during the story, things will be revealed, and their relationship will be explained. There is a chance for confusion, if you don't pay attention, but everything will be explained :)**_

_**But now, this A/N is by far long enough, so please read and enjoy :)**_

_*Pop_*  
>I apparated to the kitchen at the Burrow. Arms filled with firewhiskey and tears flooding down my cheeks. I fell to my knees just moments after. Bottles was breaking when they hit the floor, making a terrible noise. Mum was already in the kitchen, making some food as always. She turned to me, when she saw ne she dropped everything and came running towards me. She wrapped her arms around me and carried me in to the living room where she put me down in her lap, rocking me back and forth and soothing me the best she could. We sat like this for about an hour, it was not until then my sobbing and stopped enough for me to speak again; <p>

"mum, can I stay here tonight? I really don't want to go home tonight."  
>"Of course you can, sweetie. You can always stay here whenever you need or want so, no need to ask, you are always welcome home, darling"<p>

she kissed me on the head after she said this. I was happy I didn't have to go home. I know that the other girls would ask questions, and I wasn't really up for that, not with anyone but mum, at least. 

"Thank you mum. Oh, and can I borrow Errol and send Cary and Fiona a note?

"Of course you can. He's on dads desk. I'm sure you'll find what you need for writing there, as well"

"Thank you, mum. I'll be back soon", I said as I rose from her lap and walked in to dads home office to write that note;

_Cary and Fiona,_

_I'm staying with mum and dad tonight. I won't be in for practice tomorrow either. I will explain everything later. I'll send Jessie a note, but in case she doesn't get it in time, tell her that we spoke last week about what we were going to practice tomorrow. I'll talk to you tomorrow._

_-__G_

I rolled the parchment together and wrote their names on the outside. I found another piece of parchment and started to write a new note;

_Jessie,_

_I need you to take care of practice tomorrow. We spoke last week of what we are supposed to do tomorrow. If you don't remember, I'm staying at the Burrow tonight. I have something that I need to take care of in London. Yes, I know my apartment is closer, but I sort of just ran away from Cary and Fiona, and I can't face their questions right now. I'll give my mum the practice plan for tomorrow in case you don't remember and I'm gone by the time you drop by. I know you can do this, you are second captain for a reason. And remember; keep your eyes on the game._

_-__G__  
><em>  
>I tied both the letters to Errol and sent him away after I had instructed him on where to go and in which order. I headed back to the living room, only to find my mum back in the kitchen cooking again,<p>

"Thanks, mum. Oh, and Jessie might drop by tomorrow, there is a copy of the practice plan in my room. I told her to collect it here in case she forgets what we were supposed to do tomorrow at practice". Mum looked at me with a confused look;

"what do you mean? Are you skipping practice tomorrow? What for?"

I looked at her, and asked her to find a kettle of tea and sit down. I had always told her everything about the whole deal with Hermione. She was never particularly happy with my decision to never speak with her again. After every letter I had received from her, she almost begged me to answer her. Mum looked worried when I asked her to sit. She probably thought someone had died or something. After she had found herself a chair across the table from me, I asked her;

"mum, do you know where I came from just bow? Have you spoken to dad yet?"

She just shook her head. Good, I could tell her the whole story myself, that made everything so much simpler.

"Well, as you know I brought dad with me. We went to the ministry. You see, I got a letter that I had to trace, and Kingsley was nice enough to pull a few strings and help me out. It was a letter from Hermione. She wrote about how she was going to grant my wish and get out of my life for good. She also wrote about how this was her final goodbye."

At this point mum gasped and turned pale white, but she remained silent and let me continue my story;

"those words had me worried. I wasn't sure if she meant it like it was the final goodbye to me, or if it was her final goodbye at all. When I received that letter earlier, just minutes before I arrived here the first time tonight, I was worried it was already too late. I decided it was time to suck it up and find her. I wasn't sure if I had enough time to send her an owl back, I wasn't going to take the risk. So I appeared here, dad and I went to the minister and we had the letter traced. Turned out, she lives in London, just a couple of blocks away from the ministry, maybe 5 or 6 away from me, I didn't know she lived that close, I wish I knew before. Probably wouldn't matter, though, I would never have gone there either way; I'm too much of a coward to do something like that. Anyways, I ran from the ministry to her apartment, I honestly forgot I could use magic and just apparate to this backyard there that is used as an apparation point, a backyard that belongs to the very same building she lives in. Point is, I got there in just a couple of minutes, and then I ran up in the building to the fifth floor where she lives. When I got there, i knocked. She never answered, and I had this feeling that i shouldn't let that stop me, I had to go in, and somehow I just knew she was there. Inside the apartment, I almost started crying, she had empty bottles of firewhiskey, magazines and clothes all over the floor, it was really bad. You know those large, empty bottles of firewhiskey I brought? I believe she drinks at least one of them a day. I'm just so worried about her. Anyways, when I got there I spoke, asked if there was anyone there, I did it a couple of times, that wad all I had time for, you see, as I walked in to what must have been her bedroom, I was suddenly petrified. She had used the bodylock spell on me before she backed out of the room in shock. Not that Iran blame her, I haven't let her see me the past seven years. Well, she soon enough returned with a half empty bottle of firewhiskey. She was clearly drunk, but I couldn't do anything, all I could do was to lie their bad watch her and listen to her muttering about how this has to be a dream. She even told me how impressed she was by herself because she had never been able ti create a dream this lifelike. She then unhexed me. I removed that battle of firewhiskey from her, and told her I was worried about her. She then started to yell at me and told me to get out, she even threatened me, told me how she hadn't used her wand since the war and hoe she might mess up a few spells bad. Now that I think about it, she sounded slightly hysterical. I took all the alcohol I could find there and left, telling her I would come back tomorrow morning when she was sober again. Oh mum, what have I done to her?"

Mum came over go where I sat and hugged med tightly while so sobbed loudly. After a short while I decided to head for bed, I had to sleep and be clear in my head when I met with Hermione tomorrow. She had just proved how unpredictable she could be. I walked up the stairs and found my room, mum had made the bed and lit done light there. I decided to walk to my closet, in a box there, I had put all the letters Hermione had sent me since the war. I pulled out the box and opened it. At first the idea was to just put the last letter there along with the others, but as soon as I opened it, I wanted to read some over again. I pulled out a random letter, it was dated five years ago and started to read it;

_Dearest Ginny,_

_I have just listened to one of your games on the radio. You know about my passion for quidditch, or rather the lack of it, but even I could tell you played great. This was the first one I heard, I didn't know until a couple of days ago that you played quidditch, bit someone sent me a magazine with an interview of you, not sure who it was, but I think it was someone I know because the handwriting was so familiar, but since there was no signature, I have no idea who it was. Listening to your game made me want to see one of them someday, but I guess that is out of the question. I believe that if I did and you saw me you would be angry. But I still have a hope that one day you will forgive me for my mistakes and let me see you in action.___

_I was at St. Mungo today. We talked about how I was coping with the trauma after the war. I wasn't sure what to tell them, because honestly, I don't know. I mean, when I came back to Hogwarts and you told me to stay away, well it broke me, not only my heart, but also my soul. I wish you would let me know you again, let me be there for you trough everything.__  
><em>_You know I love you, more than just a friend, and I just wish that you felt the same way.__  
><em>_I know I won't get an answer on this, and I know the answer if you decided to reply, but would you want to have dinner with me some day? Just as friends of course. Oh what the hell, why bother asking? Well, in case you want to, let me know.__  
><em>_Good luck with your next game, I will be listening.__  
><em>_Love you._

_Always yours,__  
><em>_Hermione__  
><em>  
>When I finished reading it, I had tears in my eyes. Yes, I loved Hermione too, as more than just a friend, well, used to at least, but I couldn't tell any more for sure, she seemed so broken because if me, so I wasn't sure if I could allow myself to love her anymore, but I guess I did. I mean, I have always considered myself straight, I have always found guys attracting, but there is always an exception, mine was Hermione.<p>

Until the day she came back to Hogwarts I couldn't imagine myself with anyone else, but when things had calmed and I went to the great hall to mourn over my dead brother, Fred, she had followed me. And right then, I was so angry at the one who killed my brother and ended up blaming Hermione, Harry and Ron. I blamed them for months, and in order to cope with it, I put more energy to quidditch and school. I graduated with only O's and a contract with the Holyhead Harpies. It helped me get over the grudge I held against Ron. I was still angry with Harry and Hermione, Harry because he had taken Ron and Hermione away from me, I still blame him for creating the situation between me and Hermione, and I blamed Hermione because she left me to go with Harry.

I know it was her own decision, and that gave me an even better reason to blame her. A year later I had only replied to two letters she had sent me, telling her to get lost. Another year passed by, and by then she sent me letters on a regular basis, about every two weeks. Sometimes more. But I couldn't get myself to tell her how sorry I was for treating her the way I did. I wrote letters, several to each of hers, I just couldn't make myself send them.  
>I took out another letter, this one dated last Christmas.<p>

_Dearest Ginny,_

_First of all I just want to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.__  
><em>_I know it's still a lost cause writing you, but I still live in the hope that one day you will write me back. I don't know, I just can't get myself to stop writing. You are everything to me, and I hate myself for doing that to you, running away with the boys like I did, but I had to. Ron and Harry would have died during the first week if I hadn't been there too keep them from making stupid decisions. Do you speak any with Harry? I know you barely speak with Ron, I've exchanged a few letters with him, trying to get him to talk to you, convince you to write me back. No luck so far, I guess. I don't speak much with Harry. I get a few letters from him every once a while, usually for my birthday and Christmas, rarely anything outside of that.__  
><em>_I miss you Ginny, wish you would speak with me again._

_Always yours,__  
><em>_Hermione__  
><em>  
>I put the letter back in the box, I was really crying now. I had written about six or seven replies to that letter. All of them lying in the other box I keep in my closet. I moved the box with Hermione's letters back i the closet and dried a few tears who was running down my cheeks now, before I pulled out the other box with the letters I had written. It was bigger than the other, I had mostly written several letters to each of hers. I pulled out a random letter dated October three years ago and read it;<p>

_Hermione,_

_I have written you so many letters I never had the guts to send. I probably won't have it to send you this one either.__  
><em>_I just wanted to tell you how very sorry I am for what I have done to you, not replying and everything. I wish I could have handled everything differently, I really do. I know I don't have any right to ask you this, but I beg you to forgive me. I will do anything to make it up to you.__  
><em>_How about this, I know it's your birthday next week, why don't we meet up, and I'll buy you dinner and we can talk about things and I'll try to make it up to you, at least begin.__  
><em>_Well, in case I don't see you, happy early birthday Hermione_

_Lots of love,__  
><em>_Ginny__  
><em>  
>I cried when I read this. Just one out of hundreds of letters I never sent, just stored in a box in a closet. Shit, I really wish I had sent her all those letters. I decided, no, I swore, that one day, she would see them, one way or the other. I put the box back in the closet and headed to bed, it was already past midnight, and I had to get up early and get ready. The last thing was thinking about before I fell asleep, was a silent prayer for her to forgive me. That night I slept bad, I had a dream that I found her dead next morning. Dead because of me.<p> 


	5. Confessions and tears

_**A/N: Hello, dear readers. Alright, the thing is, I didn't really plan to put up another chapter to this story just yet. The original plan was to wait a couple of days longer, but I was called in for another shift at work tomorrow, which means that I have to work double (first a morning shift at one ward, and then another late shift at a different ward (I work at an elders home). And because of that, I felt really sorry for myself. It's a good thing for you, though; you get an extra chapter already. But I have a thought behind this, I wish for someone to review and make me happy :) I am more or less addicted to reviews, and nothing makes me happier than having a new review or five :) But the most important thing, is for you to read and enjoy this :)**_

_**Oh, and it's from Hermione's point of view, this time :)**_

I woke up early. I laughed at myself for the pathetic dream I had last night about Ginny showing up all worried about the letter I had written the night before. God, how pathetic can one possibly be? I stood up from the bed and headed to the kitchen to get some coffee. I was terribly hung over from the night before, it felt like my head was splitting in half. When the coffee was ready I found a big mug and went to sit in the living room. I turned on the TV to catch some morning news. At the table I noticed a folder. I grabbed it and opened it in my lap. It was photos, articles and interviews, all of them about Ginny. I went through it all slowly, looking at everything. I cried. It was really painful to watch this, especially after that dream last night. It felt so real, almost like she actually was here. I couldn't remember everything, just that she suddenly was on my floor, petrified. I cried for a while.

After about 10 minutes I spoke loudly to myself,  
>"Suck it up, Granger! It's time to get over it. She doesn't want anything to do with you! Now move on and get over her. You are better than this!"<br>With that, I decided it was time to clean up things. I glanced at the time, noticing it was already 9:30, I still had 9 hours until I started at work. I rose and was about to start cleaning the floor, it was way too messy. I picked up a couple of empty firewhiskey bottles, while I was thinking to myself that I'm going to quit drinking today, it's just not worth it, I heard a knock on the door.

"What the hell?" I muttered to myself, wondered who would visit me. I went to the door, still holding those empty bottles. I took a deep breath before I opened, prepared to tell them to fuck off. But as I opened the door and saw who was standing on the other side, I gasped and found it impossible to speak a word. 

I just stared at her in pure shock, but quite sure if my mind was playing tricks on me. After what felt like forever, I finally managed to speak; "Ginny?", I said in disbelief. I couldn't move. "Shit, I thought I was already awake", I muttered to myself. I just stared at Ginny before I spoke again; "Well, it was nice to see you again, but this really is a bad time for you to be here, I have to wake up for real now and my apartment is a mess. But it was nice to see you. Bye, now".  
>As I was about to close the door and turn away she spoke for the first time. Her voice was careful, like she was afraid to speak," It's not a dream, Hermione, I'm really here. I need to speak with you. Please?". Her expression was a mix of a lot, sorrow, regret and careful was the most dominant ones, but I could also see that she hadn't slept well. "Oh well, it's just a dream, so whatever. Come in then. Close your door behind you". She slowly walked inside, like she wasn't sure if she should. "Hermione, do you remember I was here last night?", she asked carefully. "Yeah, sure. I also remember using my wand, and since I haven't done so since the war, it was just another proof that it was only a dream. Now, what do you want to talk about? I have to wake up and make sure I'm not late for work or anything".<p>

When I had said that, she walked up to me and pinched my arm, "Do you believe me now? It's not a bloody dream". She sounded frustrated. I grabbed my arm where the war pinched me, it was going to bruise, I was sure. "Damn it, Ginny! What the hell did you do that for?" I glared at her angrily. That was really unnecessary. "I was just trying to prove to you it's not a dream."  
>"Fine, whatever. Sit down if you'd like, I'll grab you some coffee." Ginny went to the couch and sat down on the edge, looking around the apartment while I went to the kitchen. When I got there, I looked at my arm, it was already beginning to bruise. I poked it and felt the sting that followed. I whimpered slowly at the sting.<p>

Is it really possible this wasn't a dream? That Ginny really was here, in my living room? No way!

Yet, I found a mug for her and filled it with coffee before I went back to her. I gave her the mug and she muttered a silent thank you. She didn't look at me, just stared in her lap like she was a school kid in the headmaster's office about to get in trouble for something.

We were silent for a few moments before I spoke, "What are you doing here, Ginny? What do you expect to gain from coming here?" She looked at me now, her eyes screaming sadness, as she spoke next; "I received your letter, last night, and it made me worried when you wrote about how it was your last goodbye, so I..."  
>"You received my letter last night? That's not even possible, that would mean you live close by, and I have never seen you around before."<p>

She was silent while I spoke, maybe she understood that she had no right doing this to me, not now after all this time. "Yes, I do live nearby. I live just a few blocks from here. I found out just last night how close to me you were. But please, let me tell you, I will leave afterwards if you still want me to" I waved my hand as a signal for her to continue, determined to kick her out when she was finished. "Okay, so I received your letter last night. When I read what you wrote about it being your final goodbye, I was sure you was about to kill yourself, yes I read what you wrote about not writing me again, but as I read those words, I wasn't thinking very rational. So I went to the Burrow right away, from there my dad and I went straight to the minister's office and had him pull some strings and get your letter traced. When I found out about you living just a couple of blocks away from the ministry, I ran here right away, I arrived here in just a few minutes. I went up here and found all this mess, it had me even more confused and worried. At first I thought I might had gotten the wrong apartment, I found all of these quidditch magazines, and well, you never had much interest in quidditch, but as I saw a couple of pictures at the wall of you, I understood it was your place, but I figured you might lived with someone, so I just kept walking. I spoke your name a couple of times, next thing I know I open a door and find myself on the floor petrified. When I was lying there on the floor I was thinking about you, about how much all if this terrified me. Then you returned with that bottle of firewhiskey, and I got even more worried about you. When you unhexed me, I wasn't sure that to do next. I just remember saying something, and the next thing I know is you kicking me out. I went back to the Burrow and collapsed on the kitchen floor. I talked to mum about it, the letter and my visit. She really missed you, you know. Almost as much as I did. Later on I went to my old room, I was about to put your letter in this box I have where I keep all the letters you have sent me since the war ended. I read trough a couple of them again, and I could do nothing but to cry. I was just thinking about how much I regretted what I last said to you, all those years ago. I just wish I had done things differently. You have no idea how much I wish I had done things differently. I am so sorry, Hermione. And I know I am in no position to ask you this, but will you please forgive me? I'll do anything for you, anything you ask."

She cried as she spoke, her voice trembled. I'm pretty sure she was honest with me. And she was right, she had no right to ask for my forgiveness. Not after all she said and didn't say. I just had one question for her, and I held my voice as cold as I possibly could when I spoke; "If you regretted it so badly, why didn't you ever write me back, then?" She looked sad. I was starting to think that maybe she really did regret it all, but hell if I was going to let her get away that easy.

Her voice was low when she answered, "trust me, I have asked myself the very same question hundreds of times. Truth is, I don't know. I mean, I have written you letters, hundreds of them, several letters to each one you have sent me, I just never had the guts to send them. I really wish I had, then I wouldn't be sitting here worried and about to beat myself up. I really am sorry things got like this".

I just looked at her, she read my letters? Even written replies she never sent? This was just unbelievable. Ginny rose from the couch and went over to the chair I was sitting in. She leaned in and dried a tear that had escaped. I hadn't even realized I had tears in my eyes. She straightened up and spoke, "well, I guess I should leave, then. Oh, I almost forgot, I know it's a few days late, but I found this at home, I know it's not much, but I want you to have it. Happy late birthday, Hermione."

She was sad, clearly sad when she said it. She handed me an envelope. I looked at it, and asked her; "what is this?". She just looked at me and silently said; "it's one of the letters I wrote you. I thought you might like to read it. It's old, though, but it still matters, I still mean what it says. I just want you to have it. Let me know what you think after you read it, will you? I'm staying at the Burrow if there is anything. Goodbye, Hermione." I looked after her as she walked out the door, not quite sure what to believe.

I glanced at the time a short while after she left, only then I could get myself to do anything but staring at the door she had just walked trough. It was already 4:15. I needed a drink. Right now.

I walked over to the leaky cauldron, deciding that probably the best idea. It wasn't that far away, only 15 minutes of walking. I brought the letter with me, I wanted to have a couple of glasses of firewhiskey close by when I read the letter. I walked in, and a couple in the darkness started to whisper. I just hoped it wasn't about me. I hadn't been much part of the magical world since the war, so I didn't know if it was something they talked about. I went over to the bar and ordered two glasses of firewhiskey and found myself a quiet corner where I could read the letter in peace and quiet.

At first I just sat there with the letter in front of me at the table. I just glared at it. After a few moments I had a sip to drink, almost like to get some courage, and reached for the letter. I was shaking really bad when I opened it. I saw it over quickly before I started to read it properly, just to get an idea of what to expect. I sighed as I was about to read, not sure if I really should. This was going to be painful. The letter was dated October two years ago, just before my birthday.

_Hermione,_

_First of all, I just want to wish you a happy birthday._

_Now I have something to tell you. I was supposed to tell you when you got back from the war, but it all got so wrong when I finally saw you. I really wish I hadn't said all of those things. I truly am sorry for every word I said to you. I know I'm in no position to ask you this, but I ask you to please forgive me, at least consider it.__  
><em>_What I should have said, was "I love you", because that's the truth. I'm in love with you. I have always been in love with you, ever since I saw you the first time on the station when you were about to leave for your first year at Hogwarts all those years ago. Since that day, I have only been able to picture my future with you. But now, those pictures are about to fade, more and more for each day that passes, only because I'm pushing you away like I do. I wish to spend my future with you.__  
><em>_I love you, Hermione Granger. More than anything else. I would do anything for you. I just hope you still feel the same way about me._

_Love,_

_Ginny_

I put the letter down. My mind stood still. Why did she do this to me now? Now that I was ready to move on. I glanced at the time again. It was 5:45. I emptied the last of the firewhiskey and went over to the bar to ask the guy behind the counter if he could floo someone for me. He told me it was no problem, he just needed to know where he should call and what to say. "The Burrow. Ask for Ginny and tell her she needs to get back to my place. She should know where and why. Tell her it's urgent". "I'm on it. Can I get you anything else?" He smiled at me. I dug in my pocket and found some sickles and put them on the counter, "No thank you. I'll just head home, now. Good night".

When I came out I picked up my cell phone and rang to work. It was Jen who picked up the phone, "hi, Jen. It's Hermione. Look, I can't get to work today. Something urges came up that I have to take care of. Can you get someone to cover for me? I'll be back tomorrow night, I hope, I just have to take care of this."  
><em>"sure, Hermione. Call me tomorrow and let me know if you can make it. Don't rush back. I'll have you covered."<em>  
>"Thanks, Jen. I owe you one." I hung up, not bothering to wait for her to say something more.<p>

I ran home. Sure, I could have apparated, but I wasn't taking the risk. After all it was almost 7 years. Since I last did it. When I got there, I saw that Ginny hadn't arrived yet. But she wasn't far behind. I had only been home a couple of minutes when the door knocked. I yelled at her that the door was open. I heard it opened and closed before the next door opened and closed.

I stood in the middle if the room. I was furious. I glared at her, she just looked confused about my reaction. "What's the matter? Did I do something wrong?", she asked. She spoke so low, I could barely hear what she said. My next words came fast and loud, clearly showing how furious I was, "what's the matter? You ask me what's the matter? How can you do this to me? How can you possibly have the nerve to confess your undying love to me now when I'm finally pulling myself together enough to finally move on from you? How can you possibly do this to me? It's been more six years since I told you the first time I was in love with you. _**six bloody years, Ginny**_. How could you?" I was crying now. I was hurt and angry with her. How could she do this to me? Was she just making fun of me? Or trying to hurt me even more? Ginny was crying too, now, but I honestly couldn't have cared less at the moment. I hated her right now, for doing this. Her voice trembled as she spoke again, clearly affected by her tears; "I'm sorry, Hermione. I never meant to hurt you, I swear. I just thought when I read your letter yesterday, that it was time to do what I should have done six and a half years ago. I'm really sorry, Hermione. I guess I shouldn't have done it, I guess it was a mistake to let you know. Forgive me".

Ginny hung her head in an apology. I could see her tears falling to the floor. My rage calmed down at this sight. Ginny who was always so strong and never let anyone hurt her, not so they could see, anyways. Ginny who never shed a tear in front of anyone, hardly even me, her best friend. To see her like this, broke my heart. I couldn't get myself to do anything else than just walk over there and apologize to her.

"Look, Ginny. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. It's just, it was just too much. I haven't heard from you in so many years, and suddenly you are standing on my doorstep all worried about me killing myself and with a letter where you confess your eternal love for me. You just can't expect me to react any differently. It just gets too much to. I'm Sorry." Ginny was sobbing loudly now, I just couldn't help it, I took a small step towards her and embraced her. Okay, this was just weird, first of all, I hadn't embraced her in almost eight years, second of all, she was sobbing. This was something I never would have seen happen.

I lifted her and carried her over to the couch where I put her down before seating myself next to her. I sat there, soothing her for an hour or so while she kept muttering between sobs his sorry she was. An hour or so later she managed to pull together enough and removed herself from my arms. I removed a few tears from her cheek, telling her it was going to be just fine.

We just sat there for a while. Talking a little every now and then. It was kind of awkward, really. After a while, Ginny looked at the time and noticed it was getting late, "Bloody hell! Is it really 1 in the morning already? Shit. I need to get home now, I got practice tomorrow morning." I glanced at the time myself, surprised it was this late already, "yeah. I should get to bed as well, it's been a long day". Ginny looked like she was thinking for a moment, then she spoke, "Hermione, I know I probably shouldn't ask this, but would you like to come over to dinner tomorrow? At my apartment, I mean. I could kick Cary and Fiona out, and we could talk a little and see if we could sort things out? If you'd like. Feel free to say no". She looked at me nervously, apparently worried about what I would say.

I thought about it for a moment. I had work tomorrow, but not until 8. I wasn't sure what to say. "I would love to, Ginny, but I have work tomorrow at 8. I work at a bar, so I don't really think I have time for it tomorrow. I already called in sick today, I can't afford doing two days in a row. I'm really sorry. But hey, we can have dinner here Thursday night, if you want. I have the day off, and I could cook. And I promise I'll clean up the apartment by the then." I smiled hopefully as I said those last words. She put on a wide grin as well, "I would love to. When should I be here?" I couldn't help myself, my grin grew bigger, "I don't know, are you finished at practice around sevenish?" "Yes. I'll be ready on your doorstep around seven, Thursday, then". "Wonderful. I'll see you then. And give Mrs. Weasly my best wishes, will you?"  
>"Sure thing. Goodnight then, Hermione", "Goodnight, Ginny".<p>

As I went to bed that night, I was anxious and excited at once. Not quite sure what to expect. Why had I agreed to dinner with her in the first place? I was supposed to be hard to get, or something now. She deserved that much. I mentally kicked myself and thought to myself that I had to figure out something, because I sure as hell wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily.

Soon I drifted to sleep, a dreamless sleep for once, thankfully. This day's events had really taken its toll on me.


	6. Quidditch, curious mothers and dinner

_**A/N: **__**It's the end of my Easter holiday, and I have to spend the day studying for a biology test tomorrow :( So once again I feel sorry for myself, and once again that means you will have another chapter to read :)**_

_**Oh, and I have done a couple of changes of names, just minor changes since these persons have just been mentioned:**_

_**Jessie= Gina  
>Cary= Gloria<br>Fiona= Grace**_

_**Just minor changes, and nothing to really worry about :)**_

_**This chapter is from Ginny's POV.**_

_**Please enjoy :)**_

I apparated straight to my room at the Burrow. I had decided to stay there another night when I had seen Hermione at first. And considerate as I am, I assumed everyone was asleep already.

When I got there, I realized how hungry I was, after all I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. Eating hadn't exactly been my first priority today.  
>I decided to sneak downstairs and grab something to eat. When I got down to the kitchen, I had a hard time not screaming.<p>

At the table in almost complete darkness, I saw two silhouettes. It took me a moment before I realized it was mum and dad, and another one before I could get myself to say something,

"mum? Dad? What are you doing still awake? I thought you were asleep already?"

Apparently they hadn't heard me come down the stairs, because they jumped when I spoke. Then followed moving of a chair, running around the table and hugging followed by a very relieved voice of my mother,

"oh, Ginny dear. We were so worried. You were away for so long, and we didn't hear anything and.. oh Ginny, we were so worried."

I pushed mum gently away and held her an arm length away from me and looked her in the eyes,

"mum, I'm fine. We just forgot about the time".

She looked confused,

"we? Are you saying you have been at Hermione's place until now? Oh, Ginny",

followed by more hugging before she pulled away and dragged me over at the table. The literary pushed me in to a chair at the end of the table and started to ramble with equipment to cook,

"what would you like to eat, dear? Is egg and bacon okay?"

I just nodded. I had a hard time not laughing at her behaviour. Cooking, her solution to everything. It's a miracle we're not at the size of a house all of us. She cooked in silence. When she was done she put a large plate with a small mountain of egg and bacon, sausages, and a some toast in front of me. You would think I had been starved for a month.

I ate my meal in silence, completely in focus of my food. I figured that was the best was if I wanted to actually swallow my bacon, not have in some out of my nose. I knew she was looking at me, just waiting to hear what had happened at Hermione's. She was just like a teenager when it got to Hermione. Mum had always liked her, all though, she never knew about my true feelings for her, but since we are talking about my mum, Molly Weasly, I'm sure she had already guessed. It would explain why she was so devastated when she found out I had told Hermione to fuck off.

When I finished a few minutes later, she practically ripped the plate away and soon replaced it with a large cup of tea.

"So? What happened? Did you make up?"

I giggled. I just couldn't help it, she looked so excited there she was sitting at the edge of her chair, waiting to hear what had happened.

"Mum, there isn't much to tell. She yelled a little, then we talked and cried a little, but mostly we sat in silence, not quite sure what to say. But I'm going over there for dinner Thursday night, and we'll take things from there. I'm not saying things will be like they used to, honestly I doubt it, too much has happened, and I've been too big of an idiot, so just having her speaking with me, is more than I have the right to ask for."

My mum looked a little confused,

"well, I must just say you are certainly right, you have been an idiot, that girl had been begging you to talk to her again for years, and just writing letters but never send them isn't exactly the best way to treat a girl like Hermione. Anyway, why did she yell? You didn't do something, did you?"

I looked at my hands in shame. She was right, I did treat her bad, really bad. I didn't deserve her.

"I gave her one of the letters I wrote her two years ago for her birthday. She didn't take it too well at first, but she came around when I started to cry. I realized it was possibly a bad mistake giving it to her. But she calmed down eventually, and we talked a little, but we sat mostly in silence. It passed, and that's the most important, really. But we will probably talk about it in Thursday. I will tell her all I possibly can then, she deserved that much".

Mum just looked at me, she had tears in her eyes and a smile was playing at her lips, the more or less ran around the table and wrapped her arms around me before I had taken a breath,

"oh Ginny dear. I am so proud of you, finally you pulled your head out of your arse and talked to her. Oh love, you have no idea how happy I am right now".

This was kind of funny, you would almost think that she was happier to have Hermione back in my life than I'm. She let go of me before she spoke again, "oh, if things goes well on Thursday, you have to invite her for dinner here sometime this weekend, Sunday, I think".

"MUM! I'm not inviting Hermione here for Sunday dinner, first of all we have to straighten things out between the two of us, I don't want to push my entire family on her this soon. I'm not risking it. Not yet. Take it easy, please. And second of all, George is always here for Sunday dinner, you might remember me blaming her for getting his twin brother killed? No mum, I'm not taking that risk yet. Soon, I hope, but not this soon, we are just too easy to break yet".

Mum looked disappointed at first, but I think she understand what I'm talking about. I hope so, at least. But my first priority from now on, will be to fix me and Hermione.

"Yes, of course. You are absolutely right. Take your time and nurse your relationship carefully. Now, it's late and you have practice in a few hours. Off to bed with you. Goodnight, love".

"Yeah. Night mum. I'll see you tomorrow after practice."

I think we both had forgotten about dad, bit who could blame us? After all, he was resting his head on the table, clearly asleep. I giggled a little at the sight of dad waking up a few moments after mum had levitated him and was about to float him off to bed, he looked slightly confused as he woke up in the air like that. He then laughed a little, mum refused to put him down, she found it rather amusing seeing him float around like that. I'm sure dad did too.

I went upstairs an in to my room and fell asleep on my bed in a matter of seconds not even bothering to undress.

The next morning I woke up to an owl knocking on my window rather loudly. I took a quick glance at my alarm clock noticing it was 7:45, still 30 minutes until it would ring. I groaned and let a large yawn escape. I went out of bed and over to the window. I untied the letter that was tied to the owls leg, I sat down by the desk and read it,

_Ginny,_

_It's been a while since I written you now. How are you? Is the practice going okay? I try to listen to all of your games, but it's not always possible. I heard you did well at your last game. I'm so proud of you. I have a hope that I will be back for your game against the Chudley Cannons December fourth, but I'm not making any promises yet.__  
><em>_Currently I'm in Sweden. Someone told us we could find some very interesting news here about a new potion that can cure a werewolf. I'm really excited about this. If there is some truth in those rumours, I'll find it, and hopefully I can have it published soon. It's so exciting working for Luna's magazine, she has all these ideas that sounds weird, but many of them actually hold sine truth in it. Tell me that 6 years ago, and I would have you locked up at St. Mungo for good. I just love my job. Oh, and she's talking about having a new magazine published along with "the quibbler", "potions of the future" and "plant life, she wants a quidditch magazine too. She says I can report from quidditch games too, in addition to my job as a writer for "potions of the future". That would be really cool, I could go to all your games, and perhaps I could even trick you to a few exclusive interviews?__  
><em>_Anyways. I'm sure I know the answer to this question, it never changes, but have you spoken with Hermione lately? I wrote her for her birthday two days ago. She probably hasn't gotten it yet, I'm still waiting for her reply. Should be in any day now, if she intends to reply. I'm sure she still misses you. You should talk to her, you know, she really hasn't handled looking you very well. I Think she's on a good way to alcoholism. Please at least write her, let her know you care.__  
><em>_I'll write you again as soon as I can_

_Love,_

_Ron_

I smiled at the letter. It was nice to get a letter from him again, it was a while since the last one.

I wondered if he liked Sweden. I did when I was there three years ago playing quidditch.

I glanced at the time, and decided I would write him a reply while having breakfast, it was still an hour and a half until I had to be at the pitch. I took the owl with me and silenced the alarm so it wouldn't start off unnecessary in 20 minutes. I brought a pen and a piece of parchment with me and headed downstairs. I found mum already cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

"Morning, mum"

She shot me a quick glance and a smile before she turned back to the stove,

"Good morning, Ginny. Who sent you a letter this early? Is it from Hermione?"

She sounded hopeful. Damn, what was it with this woman?

"No, mum. It's from Ron. I just got it now, it's dated 5 days ago. He's in Sweden now, did you know he was going there?",

I asked as I sat down by the table. This came as shock to me, I didn't know he was going outside Britain before new year.

"Oh, and he said he hoped to be back for my game against the Chudley Cannons in December, wouldn't that be great?"

Mum put some food on a plate and handed it to me,

"Sweden? Wow. Good for him. It would be nice if he came home then, maybe he would come over for Christmas, he and Luna. That would be really nice. And if everything works out, you can bring Hermione too, if she wants to".

She seemed excited about the idea of having Hermione over for Christmas, and I just couldn't help myself, I just had to ask,

"Gee mum, next thing is planning our wedding, don't you think?"

The sarcasm was dripping from my words, but damn well, she lit up at the idea,

"you really think there will be a wedding between the two of you? I always pictured you to would end up together. Oh, this is going to be lovely. I can't wait".

Her eyes sparkled as she spoke, and me? I choked on a piece of bacon. When I was able to breathe properly again I spoke, my voice full of shock and horror;

"bloody hell, mum. I was just joking. Jeez. I don't even know if I'm allowed to call her a friend again, yet. God damn me and my bloody big mouth. And besides mum, you know I'm not into girls like that. Christ."

"Oh, but Ginny, a wedding would be just wonderful. You belong together. And I have seen the way you look at her, and I have seen something in your eyes, something that goes beyond friendship. Come on, Ginny, we all know you are in love with her and have been since Ron began at Hogwarts".

She was more or less dancing around in the kitchen when she spoke. One could almost see the wheels in her head working, already planning our wedding. And me? I choked again, this time on some scrambled eggs. How the hell could she know my love for Hermione went beyond friendship? And why the hell did everyone else know it too? This was getting ridiculous. I shoved the rest of the food down my throat, eager to get away as soon as possible.

"Look, mum,"  
>I said as I rose from the chair and prepared to leave,<br>"don't get any ideas about me and Hermione, okay? We sure as hell have a lot to catch up on and figure out before I even dare to think of myself as a friend of hers. So just let it be. I have to go now, I need to stop by my apartment and get some stuff before practice. I'll see you later for dinner".

I kissed her on her head as I went outside to apparate from there. I decided to skip the trip to the apartment, figured that I rather wanted to fly some rounds before practice began, catch up a little since I missed yesterday's practice. When I arrived I went straight to the changing rooms, muttering to myself,

"bloody woman. Why can't she ever stay out of my bloody business? She almost had me chocked twice. _twice_ damn it.  
>A wedding? Where the hell does she get her ideas from? She knew I was just being sarcastic. Stupid woman. A wedding? What the hell does she think about me? No sir, no weddings for me, no..."<p>

I heard a voice from behind me. Damn it. Couldn't I have a few moments by myself to get it all out?

"Hey, loony tunes. Who are you talking to? And who's getting married? Is it you?"

I turned around, it was Gina.

"Hey, Gina. You're early. How come?"

She raised an eyebrow as she spoke;

"I decided to warm up a little early, and to plan practice just in case you didn't show up today either. But you are avoiding the important question here, are you getting married?"

She smirked. The whole team was waiting for me to get married as I was the only one left. They hoped for me to have it done before I quit quidditch, then they would have a great excuse to throw one hell of a party for me. They always looked for reasons to party. I sighed,

"no, Gina, I'm not getting married. My mum seems to think so, though. But no, no weddings for me. Although, I'm sure she had the entire thing planned already".

Apparently, I'm the only one who isn't happy about the idea of me getting married,

"oh boy, Ginny. Who's the lucky guy? When will we get to meet him? Oh, have you set a date yet? You should do it in the spring. Spring weddings are so beautiful, remember Marie's wedding? It was early May, it was so fantastic. Oh, and..."

I was frowning now, why couldn't people mind their own fucking business?

"_**Christ, Gina**_! I'm not getting married. God. I just.. Oh hell, never mind. I'll tell you the whole story later."

You would think that would wipe her stupid grin, but no,

"okay, then. But you are clearly seeing someone, so you have to tell me who the lucky bloke is, or I'll tell everyone you are getting married"

Stupid girl, too sneaky for her own good. I sighed again,

"I'm not seeing anyone. Oh fuck it. Her name is Hermione, we were best friends until eight years ago, the following year I couldn't speak with her for reasons I don't want to talk about, I'm not ready for that yet, but I'll tell you some day. Anyways, seven years ago I was supposed to tell her I was in love with her, but it went wrong. Things happened and instead I told her to fuck off and never speak to me ever again. Know those letters I've been getting and never replied to? They were all from her. I tried to reply, I just couldn't make myself do it. Well, the other day I received one that had me worried, like really worried. I went there and found her drunk. She's been drinking for years, I just didn't think it was that bad. Well, she kept yelling about it being a dream and stuff, so I decided to remove all her alcohol and return the next day. That's why I didn't come yesterday, I had to take care of this while she was sober and before she did anything stupid. I gave her one of the letters I once wrote her, but never sent. She read it and had me come over again a couple of hour later. First she yelled at me, but she calmed down and we talked a little. We decided to have dinner tomorrow and talk, see if we can sort things out, at least begin. And well, mum is sGloria excited about this, wants her over for Christmas and everything, and as we talked about it this morning I made an sarcastic comment about me and Hermione getting married, so now she thinks marriage is the next thing, hence the muttering you heard."

She looked at me, in shock at first, but soon after a large grin followed,

"Ginerva Molly Weasly, I never thought this about you. We all believed you were into guys. Well, not all of us, Gloria was betting on you being a lesbian, and Marie and Carla was betting on bisexual. Oh my, my, my. Well, I guess I lost that bet, then"

"I'm not really into girls like that, only Hermi..wait, what? You were _betting_ on whether I was in to guys or girls?"

Bloody hell. Could this get any worse? I shook my head and continued,

"never mind, just don't mention any part of this conversation to anyone. I'm really not ready for anything about this, not yet. I need to figure things out with Hermione first before I do anything else. Christ. Okay, enough of this shit, now. Want to join outside for a few rounds around the pitch?"

She looked at me, she was thinking of something,

"yeah, sure. I just have one question first. You say Hermione. It that Hermione as in Hermione Granger?"

Bloody hell. I saw no good ending at this nightmare. I sighed again,

"yes, I'm talking about Hermione Granger. _The_ Hermione Granger. The war hero and all that. Can we go now? This is just not a subject I feel like discussing with anyone. The war is the reason of the situation between her she me. Now let's go, please?"

I glared at her, doing my best to show her that this conversion was over now. She just smiled, but rose and followed me out to the pitch,

"really? That is so cool. When do we get to meet her?"

I glared at her while I mounted my broom,

"Christ, Gina. I don't know. I don't even know what will happen next. I might know after our dinner tomorrow, now just shut up about this, will you?"

And with that, I took off. Soon after she took off as well. I have never been happier to ignore her and blame it on my focus. We had only been in the air for a couple of minutes when the rest of the team arrived. I landed on the ground and gathered them all.

"Okay, team, on Saturday we have a new game, this one against Puddlemere united. So today I have decided to play a practice game instead of running laps. We play reserve team against the main team. Any complaints? Good. Mount your brooms and warm up a little while I get the rest of the equipment".

I walked to the locker where I had all equipment locked in and got the box. When I got back to the team, they were all in the air ready to start, the reserve team had already changed the colour on their uniform to blue. Good. Seems like 4 years as a captain had disciplined them by now. I looked up at them, I felt my whole body grow like a balloon, I was so proud of this team. I was dreading the day I was going to retire.

The team played perfect. It made me grow even more. This very team was the best in the history according to all the magazines in the world, and I was the captain of that team. I was so proud.

When I got back to the Burrow, I decided to give them the Friday off. They deserved it and a day off before the game Saturday would do them some good.

The evening at the Burrow was rather uneventful, we had dinner, then I went outside for a walk down by the river for a couple of hours before I returned back and decided to take an early night since I didn't get much sleep last night. When I got upstairs, I saw Ron's letter. I figured I should answer it before I went to bed, and sat down by my desk and began to write;

_Ron,_

_It's good to hear from you. I'm doing just great. Quidditch is going great, it's the best team in the history of Holyhead harpies, maybe even the whole Britain. It would be great if you could make it home by the game in December. Mum says you could bring Luna and have Christmas here. How is Sweden? Do you like it there? I think it's wonderful there. I want to go there again soon. But on a vacation next time. I didn't get to see much when I was there for the quidditch cup.__  
><em>_Ron, prepare to be surprised. You don't know the answer to all the questions. I have spoken to Hermione lately. Two days ago was the first time. I'm going to her place for dinner tomorrow night, actually. I'll say you said hello.__  
><em>_Now I'm off to bed. Have to get up bright and early tomorrow as usual._

_Best wishes,_

_Ginny_

I sent it off with the owl it came with, it probably knew where to find Ron. It had stayed here all day, probably expecting to return with a letter. Then I was off to bed. Once again I fell asleep in a matter of moments.

The next day went by in a blur. And all of a sudden it was 6 o'clock. I had an hour before I was going to meet up with Hermione. Plenty of time to get ready. I went for something casual, just a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. I had no intention of arriving overdressed. It was just a dinner and a talk between.. friends?

I went downstairs to find mum, telling her I was leaving now. She hugged me and wished me the best of luck. When I went outside she yelled at me to send her regards to Hermione. I apparated half a second later to the backyard of Hermione's building. I took a deep breath and headed for her apartment.


	7. Pizza and headaches

_**A/N: Wuhu. Chapter 7 is here. This one is from Hermione's point of view. Please read and enjoy :) Oh, and a review or two won't hurt either ;D**_

_**A/N2: Oups. Forgot to edit the thing with paragraphs and stuff. Let's try once more :)**_

Someone was knocking at the door. I was sure it was Ginny. I yelled at her to come in. She was in the kitchen moments later. I was busy cooking. I had decided to cook chilli con carne, one of the few things I was able to cook without setting something on fire. But Ginny didn't have to know. Not yet at least. She glanced around the kitchen while she greeted me,

"Hello, Hermione. Mum and Ron says hi, too".

I did not expect her to be right behind me, I was sure she was in the doorway, so I jumped in terror and turned around, and well, since I'm so used to be alone, I had my arm stretched out and managed to hit Ginny in her head, knocking her to the floor.

"OH GOD! Ohgod, ohgod, oh god. I'm so sorry, Ginny. You just scared me. I am so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you. Oh god. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

I was on my knees by her side holding her head in my lap. She on the other hand just groaned and put one hand to her head.

"Don't worry. I'm just fine. Could use some ice for my head, though. Got some?"

In my hurry to get her a bag of frozen peas, I forgot about her head in my lap. First I heard a short scream followed by the sound of her head hitting the floor and a low groan.  
>I cringed at the sounds. How the fuck was it possible to do something like that? Christ. I'm such an idiot. I ran back from the fridge with a pack of peas and got back down on my knees. I put the icepack behind her head and told her to hold it. Somehow I manage to lift her up an carried her to the couch. I sat down on the edge of the couch next to her,<p>

"I am so sorry, Ginny. I didn't mean to hit you or drop you. I am so, so sorry. I'm just not used to people, and I'm nervous about this dinner and all. And oh my god, your eye. It's bruising. Stay here. I'll be right back".

I ran to the kitchen, ripped open the fridge and found some ice cubes I put in a towel before I ran back an put it on her eye. Careful not to hurt her any more than I already had. Suddenly she laughed. She laughed loud, not able to speak a word. Confused I asked her why she laughed, but that only made her laugh even harder.

Oh god. I had broken her. Mr. And Mrs. Weasly would kill me. After about 15 minutes of crazy laughing from her and worried looks from me, she managed go calm down again. The next couple of minutes she spent catching her breath again.

"Ginny? Are you okay? How much did I break you? Maybe I should take you to the hospital, they could save you before you get too broken permanently".

This was not helping, she just laughed again. Not as badly this time, but I was still worried. I really had broken her. When she was able to talk again a few minutes later, she spoke,

"no, don't worry. I take hits to my head all the time. I play quidditch, remember?"

My eyes grew wide.

"That's supposed to calm ne down? We are going to the hospital right now. We can go to a muggle hospital if you don't want the entire wizarding world to know I almost killed you".

I stood up and prepared to go.

"Hermione! I don't need to go to the hospital, I'm not about to turn crazy. I just thought about something my mum said yesterday morning. She is more or less planning our wedding already, you know. She's convinced we are getting married, preferably later tonight. I'm sure she's more excited about us talking again than I am. And well, what I was laughing at, was I imagined how it would be if we actually got married now, it would be interesting if you're not used to having people around. I would be hexed to madness within the first month".

I stared at her. Marriage? Christ. How could she think about marriage already? We don't even know each other properly yet, marriage would be years from now if we even got to that point ever. I was stunned. And Ginny must have seen it because she spoke again, a little more serious this time,

"Hermione. Relax. We're not getting marriage. Hell, I don't even consider a relationship at this point. Okay? My only concern at this moment, is to gain your trust again and become your friend again. I don't even think about best friend, yet. Right now I just want you back in my life and earn your trust again. That's my number one priority, okay? Yes, I still love you and all, I always did, but I'm not good enough for you, I don't deserve you after all I said to you. I'm just grateful you want to talk to me. Trust me, mum is just too excited about you. She loves you like you were her own daughter".

I relaxed a little, but I was still anxious. I was not comfortable with her talking about a relationship between us. Luckily we got interrupted by the smoke alarm.

"Fuck. The food. I forgot about the food. Fuck!"

I ran to the kitchen, it was now black with smoke. I found the stove and removed the casseroles from the stove and opened a window to get the smoke out. A few minutes later all the smoke was out, and the smoke alarm was silenced. Ginny stumbled her way to the kitchen while I was throwing the burned food in the bin,

"why don't you use magic to remove the smoke and everything?",

she was curious,

"I don't use magic"

I replied harshly. I think I hurt her feelings, because her voice was lower and more careful when she spoke again,

"may I ask why?"

I didn't look at her. I couldn't, not right now after what she had just said,

"I haven't used it since the war. I don't need it. I manage just fine without it".

My voice was still a little sharp, but not as much. She was silent for a few moments before she said anything again. I'm glad she didn't say anything more on the subject,

"Hermione, look at me".

I sighed, but I turned around and asked,

"what?"

She looked sad and worried. Her voice was wary,

"are you angry with me? For what I just said. I know I shouldn't said it, but it sort of just fell out. I'm sorry, but it's the truth".

She looked at me, anxious about my reaction,

"Doesn't matter. I just didn't expect it. But I really do think it's a little early talking about relationships and marriage, don't you think? I just think we should focus in getting trough this night alive at first, and just take one day at the time, because this is going to take time to get over. You were gone for seven years, and suddenly you are back, I really don't know what to think. I'm so scared I'm so desperate to see you again, that I'm imagining all of this".

Ginny took a step towards me and spoke,

"Hermione. You are not imagining this. It's real. I promise you. I mean, it feels like a dream to me as well, but the pain I just felt when I arrived here proves otherwise. I promise you, it's real, all of this".

She hugged me. It felt good. She pulled away from me, still holding on to me. She looked me in the eyes, we froze in the moment. We stood like that for a few minutes before I broke away. I turned around and went over to continue taking care of the ruined food. Ginny pulled out her wand,

"Hermione, let me take care of the cleaning",

and before I had time to react, she flicked her wand and everything started cleaning itself up. I sighed,

"okay. Thanks. The only problem now, is what do we eat? Care for pizza?".

"Sure, pizza sounds good. Where do we go?"

I looked at her amused. I had forgotten about how the magic world didn't have take-out delivered at their door,

"nowhere. I'll call them with our order, and we get it delivered to the door in a short while".

"Really? Wow. That's weird. Dad will go crazy when I tell him about it. I can tell him, right?"

She looked excited at first, then curious, I just had to laugh at her. People who grew up with magic and muggle things is really funny to watch. They get excited about something as simple as light bulbs and batteries, quite amusing, actually,

"go ahead, Ginny, tell him about take-out, tell him about the smoke alarm too, if you want. I'll even take a look and see if I still have my old cell phone somewhere, he would be excited about that one".

Ginny had a sceptical look at her face,

"a what? What the bloody hell is that?",

I laughed again, this was just too hilarious,

"I'll explain later when I have placed our order".

I called pizza hut and ordered a large pizza. When I was finished I took Ginny back to the living room to explain the cell phone, but just as I was about to talk, she spoke first;

"before you tell me what that seller thing is, you have to tell me one thing",

she looked at me with a very serious look, like she was the wife who needed to know if her husband was cheating on her. I got worried, but before I had time to say anything she continued,

"what exactly is this pizza thing you were talking about? I figured it was food, but I just have to know if it's something alive it not. I'm not eating something that moves".

She continued to look at me, I stared at her and blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out if she was serious or not. Then I started laughing really loud, of course she didn't know what pizza was, there were no such thing in the wizard world. I pulled myself together enough to speak, it worked fairly well considering how much laughter I was suppressing,

"sorry. It's not really funny, I just never had to explain pizza to anyone before. Okay, well, it's not really easy to explain pizza, but it is food, non-moving food. Very much dead, actually. It should be here in about.. 15 minutes, you will find out then. I'm sure you will love it".

She looked a little less serious, and a little relieved we were having dead food, I let out a small giggle, and to my relief, she smiled to.

"Now to the cell phone. It's a muggle device that help you contact people and having people contact you. It's kind of like when you put your head in the fireplace and floo someone except they can't see you", I began,

"dark muggle magic, that's for sure. Where does it have its brain? This thing is evil, I'm telling you",

she muttered, just scowling at the phone, turning it around to look at it from all angles. I laughed again,

"yes, it is indeed evil, everyone can get a hold of you at every hour of the day. Anyway, you know the incident where Ron called Harry the summer after their first year?",

"yeah, Harry got some real trouble for that one. His uncle almost killed him because of it. Why?",

she scowled even more, like she was waiting for it to explode or something,

"well, it's the same thing, just a portable version of it",

I put on a reassuring smile hoping to convince her it wasn't dark magic,

"told you the thing was evil",

she muttered as she pressed some buttons. She let out a scream and threw it away as she accidentally unlocked it and the light came on,

"IT'S ALIVE! IT WILL KILL US ALL!"

I fell to the floor laughing, this was just too funny, I should have had it taped or something, I would love to see this over and over again later. She gave me an really ugly look now, I guess she didn't find this as funny as I did.

"I'm sorry Ginny, I don't mean to laugh, but that was just hilarious, you should have seen your face, it was priceless".

"Stupid, evil muggle world",

she muttered under her breath while she crossed her armed and glaring between me and the phone,

"oh, Ginny dear, I'm sorry",

I went over to where she sat and sat down next to her,

"what can I do to make it up to you for laughing?".

A small smile crept over her lips, she was thinking about something, but almost like she changed her mind, she just shrugged and said;

"a hug will do",

I leaned over and hugged her, with her in my embrace I asked;

"that's not what you first thought of, was it?"

I leaned back and looked at her as she shrugged again answered;

"no, but I decided not to push my luck".

I just smiled and pulled her in for another hug and whispered in her ear;

"thank you. Maybe someday, but not just yet. Thank you".

Before any of us had time to say it do anything else, the doorbell rang, the pizza was here. I paid the delivery guy and closed the door. I put the box down at the table before I opened it and gestured towards it,

"pizza. Delicious and simple. Dig in. You'll love it".

Ginny picked up a slice and stared at it,

"are you sure it's safe to eat?".

I took a bite and burned myself at the hot cheese,

"no, not really. Be careful, it might burn you. Seriously, the melted cheese is dangerous",

she looked at me with eyes at the size of plates,

"oh come on, Ginny, just try a piece. If you don't like it, I'm sure I can retrieve some chilli con carne from the trash. Go ahead, you won't regret it. I'm going to get some butterbeer, want some? I got them from the leaky cauldron earlier".

She just nodded, still keeping an eye on the pizza slice in her hand. I went to the kitchen and returned to the living room and Ginny. I found Ginny still scowling at the pizza,

"Ginny, it's not going to attack you, just try, please".

She carefully chewed at the corner, still sceptical to the whole thing. A moment later, she smiled,

"okay, it tastes funny, but I actually think I like this",

she more or less threw the rest of the slice down her throat and went for another one. I giggled,

"I knew you would like it, but trust me, this is far from the best pizza you can eat",

she looked at me,

"really? I'm pretty sure this is the best thing I have eaten that is not something my mum has made".

I laughed, she sounded excited about the idea of an even better pizza,

"yes, really. It's homemade, and tastes a billion times better. You should cone over again someday, and I'll make you one, if you want to?".

She just grinned wide,

"I would love to. Can we do it tomorrow? I got the day off because of the game Saturday, and really don't have much to so if you don't mind, we could do it tomorrow?",

she looked at me warily, the poor girl looked so shy, this was a rare sight,

"sure we can. Have the day off as well, so we could spend the day together if you want? We could just relax, maybe watch a movie or something? And maybe we could talk a little, you know, sort things out a little? If that won't ruin your game, that is?"

She looked like she was thinking for a moment before she smiled and answered,

"that sounds like a good idea, and if it does go wrong, I'm sure it will only help the game",

I must have looked worried or something, because she quickly added;

"Hermione, don't worry. It will be fine. We will be fine. Don't worry. Okay?".

I relaxed a little and shook my head,

"still haven't changed, I see".

We both laughed at this before we continued the meal in silence. After we were finished, she groaned a satisfied groan and spoke;

"this food will make me fat, won't it?"

We laughed again,

"Ginny, not five years of only eating pizza will make you fat. Everyone else, yes, but just not you",

she raised an eyebrow, then nodded,

"yeah, I guess you are right".

We just sat in silence for a few minutes. Ginny looked like she was deep in thought, I figured I would find out why soon enough.

"Hermione? Can I ask you a question? You don't have to answer it, though".

This had me a little worried, when people asked to ask me a question, well, let's just sat it rarely brings any good, but I nodded and signalled for her to go on. She took a deep breath before she spoke again;

"when I got here on Monday night and Tuesday, the floor was filled with different quidditch magazines along with the empty bottles. Since when did you care about quidditch?".

I looked at my hands for a moment before I looked back up and answered her;

"Uhm. That's not an easy question to answer. I will show you instead, but first you must understand something, it's not what it looks like, it's not some stalker thing, alright?"

She looked confused, but nodded. I took her hand and pulled her with me to the closet in my bedroom. I took a deep breath before I opened the door and pulled out a box. I opened it, pulled out the folder and handed it to her,

"this might seem pathetic and creepy, but please understand how difficult the past 7 years have been for me. This was the only way I could get to know you when you didn't talk to me",

she looked at me, she was realizing what the folder contained, she nodded,

"I understand. If this was anyone else, I would have found it creepy, but I think I can understand this when it comes from you".

She sat down at the bed as she opened the folder, I don't think she knew how to react, either that, or she had no reaction. She just looked at the pages, one by one. Not saying anything. After a few minutes, she closed the folder and put it down on the bed next to her,

"well, this was interesting. But I'm not really creeped out, I would have done the same with you, I think. It's just weird seeing it all like this",

I looked at her surprised,

"you're not creeped out? Really? I was so sure you would be. It's not exactly normal, you know. Even I felt like a creep doing this, but I just couldn't help it",

she nodded,

"I know what you mean, just trust me, I don't find it creepy when it's you, I just found it rather unexpecting, that's all".

I was putting the folder back in the box when she noticed the two letters who also was in the box,

"what are those? Is it the letters I sent you? Please don't say it is",

I just looked at the letters and nodded. A sad expression appeared on her face as she whispered;

"I'm sorry. I am so sorry",

a tear fell to the floor and I went over to wipe away the one who followed. I placed my hand under her chin and lifted her head, forcing her to look at me;

"Ginny, listen to me. It doesn't matter. It's a part of the past, what matters, is now. You are here, we are working through it. So don't apologize, it's a part of our past, please don't think about it anymore".

She sniffed and nodded. I pulled her in for a reassuring hug. A few moments later we went back to the living room. I decided to head outside and have a cigarette. Yes, I smoke now. Not much, usually just like three or four a day, some times more, some times less. It all depends if something happens that day that stresses me out or not. Today, I was definitely stressed out. I just had to have one now to calm down, even though I had sworn to myself that I wasn't gonna let her know about this bad habit of mine, but what the hell,

"I'm going out to the balcony for a cigarette, would you like to wait here or come with me?".

She looked confused,

"a sirrett? What's that?".

I just smiled at her,

"a cigarette. Know those pipes with tobacco some wizards smoke? It's kind of like that. It's a bad habit, I know, but after I got back to the muggle world, I took up both smoking and drinking",

she raised an eyebrow at me and spoke,

"aha. Right. Uhm, I'll join you outside, some fresh air would be nice". 

We didn't speak much while we were outside, we just enjoyed the cool October air and each other's company. Actually, we didn't speak much at all the rest of that night, we talked a little while about our day and I told her about my job, how I was working at a bar, bit wasn't really happy about it, but since I couldn't put 6 years at Hogwarts and a year looking for horcruxes on my CV, that was the best I could do at the moment. And she told me about how Ron now was a reporter for _"potions of the future",_ a sub magazine to _"the quibbler",_ and married to Luna Lovegood. That last part there really took me by surprise. Ron and Luna? Who would have guessed they would end up together. She told me they had six children, three boys and three girls, and Ron had convinced her to name a son and a daughter Harry and Hermione, this had cost him, though, because that meant Luna got to name a son and a daughter without a word from Ron, they were named Gudrilla and Armando. Ron wasn't very happy about those names, but he had gotten Harry and Hermione, so it was only fair, even he said so, but according to Ginny, Luna had actually been thinking about naming two after me and Harry if that was possible, but when Ron had offered her two names, she somehow magically forgot to tell him. The last boy was named after Luna's father, Xenophilius, and the last girl after Ron's mother, Molly. It was nice, I was happy to know that everything had worked out so well for Ron. 

After a while of silence, Ginny glanced at the time, it was almost midnight.

"Oh man, is it really this late already? I should head back to the Burrow now, mum is probably still awake wondering when the wedding is",

I laughed this time, I knew now that she wasn't expecting anything at the moment, it was only Mrs. Weasly who was a little too excited about all of this,

"yeah, don't keep her waiting. You should tell her it will be in June, just for fun, you know. I can imagine her face if you did",

Ginny laughed at the idea, probably picturing it herself,

"you're right, that would be hilarious, but the poor woman would probably have a heart attack or something, and that's not something I wish for her, you know".

We laughed a little again. It was great to pull some jokes with Ginny again.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll see you tomorrow around noon, then?"

She came over to stand in front of me,

"yes, I'll be knocking on your door around then. I can't wait",

then she hugged me.

"Good. I'm looking forward to spend the day with you, too".

I smiled, I really looked forward to tomorrow, an entire day with Ginny. It had been so long since last time.

"Goodbye, Hermione"

she said, and with that, she was gone. Just a few more hours until she was back. I could feel excited butterflies replacing my organs. Tomorrow would be an amazing day, I was sure.


	8. Lunch

_**A/N: Alright. Here's another chapter for you :) This time it's from Ginny's POV.**_

_**Oh, and I wish to answer one comment from one of my readers, **_**Anon**_**. About the fact that Hermione is an alcoholic is a theme I will get closer into in later chapters. The theme just hasn't really fit into the story yet, but I will go a little more into it later :)**_

_**Now, please enjoy this chapter :)**_

I apparated outside, assuming mum was still awake. As I arrived, I could do nothing but grinning wide. I couldn't wait for tomorrow to arrive. I went inside, and was not surprised to find mum sitting by the kitchen table, her hands holding a cup of tea. She looked up at me the moment I stepped inside,

"so? How did it go?",

I just raised an eyebrow at her,

"hi to you too, mum"

she just glared at me,

"fine, hi Gin. How did it go tonight?",

I just shook my head and sat down opposite of her,

"it went great. The wedding is in June".

Oh, the sarcasm, it was dripping. One of her hands left the table and went to her heart,

"really? Oh Ginny, that is fantastic. I always knew it would be the two of you. I always knew"

She stood up while she spoke, and went to the stove to cook again as she spoke. I turned around on the chair to look at her,

"mum, I was joking",

a frying pan barely missed my head before she attacked the stove again, muttering something under her breath about how it's not nice to say something like that.

"We have decided to take things really slow and sort everything out before we do anything else, but we won't exclude anything, at the moment. Things can go either way. We'll just take one step at the time and don't rush anything".

She turned around again and rushed over to embrace me,

"oh love. I'm just so happy about this. I'm glad you finally pulled yourself together and went to see her. I just wish you would bring her over sometime soon, I would love too see her again. It's been too long since last time I saw her, and you know how I always has been so fond of her".

I thought for a second before I said anything,

"mum, I'm going there tomorrow at noon, I'm not promising you anything yet, but I'm planning to take her out for lunch somewhere in London, if she agrees, you could join us. I'm not sure what she thinks of it, but I will ask her tomorrow, if she says yes, I will come and pick you up around 12:30. What do you say about that?"

Her eyes began to sparkle, she obviously loved the idea,

"oh, would you to that for me? I would love to, but please make sure to let her know that she can decline without hurting my feelings, alright?"

I smiled. I couldn't deny that I would love to have both Hermione and mum along for lunch. I know it would mean the world to mum to get to see Hermione again.

"Don't worry mum, I'll make sure she knows".

Mum embraced me again, even thighter this time,

"thank you so much, Ginny, you have no idea what this means to me".

She loosed her embrace and went back to the stove. She returned again moments later with a plate filled with mountains of toast, eggs and sausages. I ate in silence while mum was just walking around, apparently for no reason at all, I just assumed it was because she was excited about tomorrow. After I was finished eating, I yawned and told mum I would be heading for bed now. And with that I headed upstairs and to my bed. 

I didn't sleep much that night. I was just tossing and turning, too excited about the next day to sleep. 

The next morning, I woke up at 8:30. I had finally managed to fall asleep around 6:30, it was a restless sleep, but at least it was something. The smell of coffee and... pancakes? reached me, and went downstairs and found mum already awake and cooking breakfast. I found myself a large mug and filled it with coffee. While I did so, I greeted mum,

"morning mum. What are you doing?".

I raised an eyebrow and looked questioningly at her. She had a large load of pancakes in a pile next to her. She never made pancakes for breakfast. She always made egg,bacon, toast and sausages. She looked at me,

"morning. I'm making pancakes, can't you see?"

She looked confused,

"yes mum, I can see that, but why? You never make pancakes for breakfast, why the sudden urge?"

She turned back to her cooking, turning a pancake before she answered me,

"honestly, I have no idea. I just woke up today with a bad craving for pancakes. Trust me, I'm at least as surprised as you are".

I just laughed, I just didn't know how else to react. She smiled a little as well. I sat down by the table with my mug, enjoying the refreshing taste of the coffee. A few seconds later a plate with a small pile of pancakes arrived on front of me,

"it's more than four hours until you are going to eat lunch, you better eat something now. I wouldn't want to have Hermione see the wrath of hungry Ginny, not yet at least. Wouldn't want to scare her away already".

I just scowled at her, but I knew she was right, so I dug in instead of answering her. 15 minutes later all the pancakes and coffee were gone. I stood up and headed for the door,

"I'm going to London to find a place to eat. I'll try get back before I go to Hermiones. If not, I'll see you later today. Remember to be ready for lunch at 1, just in case. Love you mum",

she nodded and came over to hug me, she whispered in my ear,

"please remember, no guilt. I don't want to intrude",

I sighed,

"I promise to make sure she knows, don't worry. But I have to go now, I'll see you later".

And with that, I disapparated. 

Seconds later I appeared in the back of George's store in Diagon alley. The room was empty, he probably was in the front taking care of a customer or five. His store was a success. He now had a store in Hogsmeade as well as a few in America and elsewhere in Europe. I was so proud of my brother, even after losing his twin, he continued and made great success. I walked out to the front and found him behind the counter. He signaled for me to come over. It was still early, but the store already had quite a few customers. I made my way over to him and greeted him,

"hi, George. Store's going great, I see"

I smiled at him. A wide grin appeared on his face,

"it's going great, dear sister. I'm thinking of expanding the store and hire one or two people extra, currency we can't fit all the customers in at once, the line of coming inside is going nearly all the way to the leaky cauldron. You don't happen to know anyone who needs a job, do you? I need one extra employee, preferably last week".

I opened my mouth, just about to tell him I was sorry, but had no idea of anyone who could use a job right now, but then I remembered what Hermione had said about not being happy with her job, but it was all she could get, I decided to ask her,

"maybe. I'll ask someone I know later. She might be interested. If she is, I'll bring her by later".

His face cracked in to the widest grin I had seen in ages,

"really? That's amazing, Gin. Who is it?"

I giggled,

"you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I'll just bring her over later today if she is interested, okay?"

He looked a little sceptical, but apparently he decided he knew better than to question his sister. Wise man.

"You know, if I didn't know better, judging by the look on tour face, I would say it was Hermione. You look exactly like you used to look when you spoke of her in our school days, you have just the same sparkle in your eyes. I missed it. When she went away, it was like a part of you died, like she was your Fred, if you know what I mean. Maybe you finally found a way to deal with it, at least for now. Well, whoever it is, I hope he's good enough for you, sis".

I glared at him,

"first of all, George, Hermione were just a friend to me, not 'my Fred' or something like that. Second of all, I will never wish to find a way to deal with what I did to her, I deserve the pain of what I did, not even a second of it will be gone until the day she tells me she has forgiven me, and even then the pain I feel will still be there,I deserve it, more than you can possibly know. And third of all, 'whoever he is'? Who says any guy have anything to do with whatever?"

I kept glaring, god how I hated it when he knew stuff. Why did he have to be so bloody observant? He raised an eyebrow,

"no guy, huh? A chick, then. Anyone I know?"

I frowned. Christ. He's unbelievable, and right. Fuck.

"Christ, George, it's none of your bloody business what I do, or who I do, for that matter. Just stay out if my business, you will see when the time is right, don't worry. Anyways, I have stuff to do. I'll bring my friend over later if she is interested in working for you. Bye".

"Bye, sis. See you later. You could bring your girlfriend over for dinner at the Burrow on Sunday, you know".

I just ignored him, I hated it when he was like that. When I got out to the diagon alley I glanced at the time, shit, 10:45 already? Stupid George. I rushed to the leaky cauldron and practically ran through it, I was running short of time now, only an hour to find the perfect place for lunch. I quickly walked for a while, carefully looking for a place that looked good enough to bring Hermione. I found this place called "the corner". I went inside and had a quick look around. This was good enough. I went back out and took a look at the time, it was 11:50, I figured I should exchange some money, I could use some muggle-money later on, and I was running short. I found an empty alley to disapparate from. I appeared on the stairs of Gringotts, running inside and found a goblin who could help me, luckily he was very helpful and could provide the help I needed quickly. Five minutes later I was back outside. I decided had no time to waste and apparated to Hermiones backyard. I ran up the stairs and knocked the door. Hermione unlocked the door a few minutes later, she looked like she had just gotten out of bed. She yawned and gestured for me to come inside. I tried to catch my breath as I walked inside and more or less fell on the coutch. Hermione looked at me with a raised eyebrow,

"have you been running?".

I held up one finger while I breathed; "one... moment..."

She shook her head and giggled,

"I'll go put on some clothes. It's coffee and tea at the kitchen if you want some when you can move".

I stayed at the coutch. When she came back ten minutes later, she looked amused at me,

"did you run the stairs at full speed or something?"

I just nodded, she laughed a short laugh,

"why?".

"Well, I figured it would be rude to apparate in your apartment, and I thought I wouldn't take the chance of getting killed if I scared you or something".

She laughed again,

"good point. Now, would you like some coffee or tea?",

"yes please, coffee would be nice".

She went to the kitchen and got us both a cup. She sat down in the chair, her mind seemed to be somewhere else, but right now I didn't take too much notice of it,

"Hermione?"

She looked at me,

"yes?",

I took a breath before I continued,

"I'm taking you out for lunch in 30 minutes, since we are cooking here later, I figured it was only fair to buy you lunch. And no, you don't have a saying in this, we are going. Anyways, the thing is, mum has this urgent desire too see you again. She misses you so bad, you have no idea. The thing is, she wanted to join us, but only if you agreed, I also promised to make sure you didn't hurt her feelings if you said no".

I was nervous, her face didn't show any signs of what she would do or say next. Moments later she stood up, mumbling something about a cigarette. I remained in my seat for a few seconds before I decided to follow. She was already outside, leaning on the rail. She must have heard me come, because as soon as I arrived in the doorway, she spoke, not even looking at me;

"you know, Ginny. When I first saw you again that first night you were here, I was sure it was a dream, and when you came back, I was sure I had gone completely nuts. I mean, how could you possibly be here again? After all these years, suddenly you are back, just the moment I decided to move on. Why? I have been threatening to kill myself god knows how many times, but it was always one of your brothers who saved me, never you. They all told me you would come around if I just gave you a couple of months, if I just wrote you letters telling you what you did to me, but this one time, when I decide to let go, you show up, ready to fight, ready to finally be there for me, now that I don't need you anymore. Where were you 6 years ago when I had a mental breakdown and was locked up at st. Mungo for six months? Where were you when I needed you the most?"

Her voice was ice cold. She didn't look at me once. I took a deep breath before I walked to stand next to her, preparing what to say next,

"107. That's how many times you said you would kill yourself. And each time I commanded one of my brothers to go check on you, because i was too much of an coward to do it myself. Each time I was at home, crying my eyes out, not talking to anyone until whichever brother I had shipped off in your direction returned. Each time I was sure that my last chance had been lost, and each time my brother returned with good news, I swore that if it happened again, I would go myself, but I always failed. I was too much of an coward to come myself. You have no idea how much I hate myself for what I did. I will always pay for it with the pain in my soul of knowing what I did to you. When you were at st. Mungo, each night I went there, talking to the healers, trying to find the courage to see you, once again I failed myself. I know I never was there for you When you needed it, but I intend to change it now, I wish to be a part of your life again, I wish to earn your trust again, I wish to be everything I haven't been the past 7 years. I wish to work hard to earn my place in your life again".

Silence. Neither one of us said as word for a few minutes, not until she suddenly sighed and spoke,

"okay".

I was confused, okay what? I just looked at her, she then continued,

"okay, tell Mrs. Weasly I'm fine with it. But remember, take things slowly, I don't know if I'm really ready to do this yet, but I'm willing to try".

I shed a tear. Hermione just looked confused at me.

"It's nothing, I'm just glad you are willing to try. And I promise, it's only for lunch, then I will apparate her back to the Burrow and return to you as soon as possible, I promise".

She just looked at me again,

"it's fine, I just.. I don't know. I just hope she doesn't hate me or blame me for Fred like you did or anything like that. I'm just scared, you know",

I grabbed her arms and held her,

"Hermione, is there any chance in hell mum would love to join us for lunch if she hated you? You think she would almost beg me to ask you to come over for Sunday dinner and Christmas if she hated you? Just don't worry, it will all be okay, I promise you".

I pulled her in for a hug,

"don't worry, everyone misses you, but we'll take one step at the time".

I glanced at the time,

"oh shit! I'll be right back, I just have to pick up mum, she's probably thinking you have declined or something. I'll be back in less than a minute".

And with that I disapparated.


	9. Lunchtime

_**A/N: Wow! This chapter was really fun to write. It's from Mrs. Weasly's point of view and was quite different to write than the other chapters has been so far, but I loved it. Makes me want to write some more from her point of view. Maybe I'll write the story so I can do that :3**_

_**Well, I think that was all I had to say for now, so just read and enjoy :) Oh, and a review or two would be nice, I think I'm about to become addicted to those :p**_

I was pacing around in the kitchen, glancing at the time every now and then, by the time it was 1:30, I was giving up, and maybe Hermione didn't wish to have me around? Not that I could blame her, I was sure it would be too much too soon, after all, it was only a few days since she had gotten Ginny back, it would be too much with anyone else too, I was sure of that. Suddenly, around 1:45 I heard a small crack outside the kitchen door. It flew open, then closing half a second later. Suddenly I heard Ginny's voice, "sorry I'm late mum. No time for explaining, let's go. We have to apparate, I'm sorry about that". Shoot. She knows how I hate to apparate, but I'm sure she had her reasons. I held my breath as we began to move, then it felt like someone was trying to pull me through a needle eye. I found this way of travelling rather painful, but what didn't I do for my daughter and my adopted daughter? We materialized in a small hallway, I felt slightly disoriented as I looked around and asked Ginny where we were. She didn't answer me, just grabbed my hand and pulled me to one of the doors. When I got to the other side, I saw a simple apartment where you first arrived in the living room with the kitchen to the right, one more door next to the kitchen, one straight ahead with windows that lead to the balcony and another door to the left. Suddenly Ginny spoke, "blimey, mum. You're so pale. That apparation wasn't very kind to you, was it?" Now that she mentioned it I felt rather dizzy, "I guess not. I think I need to sit down for a moment". Ginny lead me over to the couch and sat me down. "You want some tea? Hermione has some in the kitchen, I'm sure she won't mind". Ginny looked worried. My poor girl, I'm supposed to take care of her, not the other way around, but right now everything was spinning too fast for me to care, so I just nodded carefully, afraid that if I spoke, something very different would come out, something like breakfast. Not something I had a great desire of, so instead I just nodded and waited for Ginny to return with the tea. A few minutes later the tea was gone, and I felt safe to speak again, "now, where is Hermione anyways?" She started to look around, apparently she hadn't been thinking f her whereabouts, too busy making sure I was okay, I'm sure. "She's either in the bathroom getting ready, it at the balcony calming down. I'll go look for her soon. First I need to make sure you are okay, because we will have to apparate to the restaurant again when Hermione is ready. I sighed. Great, more apparating. If it were for Hermione I would have made Ginny walk me to her apartment and let me take the floo back home, "I'll be just fine. Go find her, make sure she's okay". She went to the balcony first, I guess she wasn't there, because she returned right away, she then went for the door who I had seen at my left when we arrived. I guess she wasn't there either. The last door, the one next to the kitchen, was locked. Ginny knocked a couple of times before I heard the door unlock. She disappeared through it and stayed there for a few minutes. When she came back, she was followed by Hermione. I nearly jumped up from the couch and leaped over to her, but as I was halfway there, I remembered something Ginny had said about being careful not to scare her. Poor Hermione, so alone for so long. I stood in front of her; she shyly mumbled something like "hello, Mrs. Weasly. It's good to see you again". She was mostly looking at her shoes as she spoke. I couldn't stop myself; I clasped my arms around her and gave her a tight hug. At first she just sort of stiffened, but as soon as she got over the first shock, I felt her arms wrap around me. I just had to smile; it had been so long since last time. God, how I missed having her around, she and Ginny were always hanging together. You would never see one of them without the other when Hermione came over to the Burrow during the holidays. God how I missed her. I let go, I felt a little awkward as I looked at her again. It was the first time in nearly seven years I saw her, and I acted like I met her on the station for Easter break, and it was the first time I saw her since the summer vacation. I just ignored the feeling of awkwardness and hugged her again, "I have missed you so badly, love. You have no idea. I'm just so happy to have the chance of you being a part of the family again, love". A tear rolled down my cheek, this was almost too good to be true. I was still embracing Hermione when Ginny tapped my shoulder, "I'm sorry to interrupt this touching reunion, but I'm starving now". I kept my face straight and spoke to Hermione, "we should go, then. You probably remember how grumpy Ginny could get when you were in school?" she just nodded, looking a little worried, "well, she's worse now, so if you wish to avoid the wrath of hungry Ginny, we should have left five minutes ago". She giggled. Oh, what a wonderful sound. Ginny just glared at me, but reached out both her hands to us to apparate us all there. I figured Hermione didn't know where we were going either. I looked at her again; she had frozen and was now pale white. Why? She was always the best one at almost everything she did, including apparation, what had changed? Ginny spoke, "Hermione? I know it's probably been a while since you did this, but just look at me, everything will be fine. If you do this, I promise we can travel back here in whatever way you decide. Okay?" she barely nodded before she took a deep breath and grabbed Ginny's hand. I did the same thing, and moments later we appeared in an alley somewhere in London. Hermione looked very pale, I went over to her and grabbed one of her arms, and Ginny did the same thing on the other side. Together we nearly carried her to the other side of the street where it was a small restaurant called "_the corner_", Ginny gestured for us to go inside. The restaurant was cosy, sort of old fashioned, with stalls and everything. It was just amazing. We sat down in a private stall in a corner and a waitress came to hand is some menus. We all looked though them, deciding on what to eat. Then all of a sudden Hermione disappeared, we looked up and Ginny ran after her, barely mumbling an excuse before she left. So now I sat there all alone, not quite sure what to do. I decided to keep looking at the menu and try to decide what to have. A few minutes later they returned. Hermione came with an apology, explaining she wasn't really used to apparate as she hadn't done it in seven years. I found myself surprised at this information, seven years? Yes, I heard Ginny say something about it being a while, but seven years? Ginny noticed my confused look and glanced at Hermione, as if to get permission to tell the story. Still pale, she just nodded and Ginny began to tell, "Hermione hasn't used any kind of magic for the last seven years. The only thing she has had to do with the magical world is owling me and sometimes Ron, healers, quidditch magazines and firewhiskey. She has suffered some kind of depression and has refused to use her wand and everything. She has pretty much lived as a muggle the past years. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm pretty sure I can be blamed for that". I just stared at them both. How could Hermione blame Ginny for something like that? Hermione just shook her head before she spoke, more to Ginny than to anyone else, "you're not to blame. Just the moment when the war ended I had enough. I decided to live as a muggle and just get away from it for a while, I just hoped you would be there with me, and the second you told me off I decided to move away and become a part of the muggle world for good, and it worked well the first 6 months, but then I bought an owl and started to write Ginny those letters, a month later I discovered that muggle alcohol wasn't strong enough to let me forget, yes I know it was a bad decision and all, so I turned to firewhiskey. Five months later I had a mental breakdown and was hospitalized at St. Mungo for six months. When I got out I stayed away from the firewhiskey until about a year later when someone sent me a note and a magazine with Ginny in it. Then it all came back to me and I just began drinking again. I knew how Ginny was blaming me for Fred's death, and how she didn't want me around, and I just wished I could be there through it all for her with quidditch and everything. I hated myself for not being able to do that, I started to blame myself, believing I actually was personally responsible for Fred's death, and not only his, but everyone else. I drank heavily to forget it all. I'm not proud of this, but I have decided to quit drinking now. The night when Ginny showed up that first time, I was sure I had gone completely nuts and was prepared to get myself locked up at St. Mungo for good, I mean, hallucinations about Ginny couldn't be good, you know. Not after all this time, so I'm working to quit drinking, hasn't had a sip since then". I went pale as she spoke, however, at the end of her speech I regained a little colour, but not enough, "mum? What's wrong?" Ginny looked very worried, and Hermione was still looking at her hands in her lap, I think she was ashamed because I now had learned about her past seven years, I'm sure she never intended to. I was shocked to learn that she had been drinking heavily for so long. Hermione, she was so strong in every way, what had happened to her? Ginny was stroking her back to soothe her. I leaned over the table towards Hermione and spoke, "Hermione? Don't worry; everything is going to be just fine, I promise. Just the fact that you have decided to quit the drinking, proves how strong you are. Besides, you have me and Ginny here now, and we will be here to support you trough all of this. You ate not alone, love". She looked up and smiled carefully while she wiped a few tears, "thank you. Both of you", she was barely whispering. I squeezed the hand I was now holding on to and smiled reassuring to her.  
>The waitress appeared again and asked us if we were ready to order yet, we all ordered something called fish and chips. Must be some kind of a muggle dish, but Hermione had recommended it, and even though both I and Ginny were sceptical to this new dish, It turned out it was rather delicious, not the best I have tasted, but it was tasty. The lunch was eaten in a much lighter mood, we laughed and really enjoyed each other's company now, and all too soon we had to leave. Both Ginny and Hermione had been insisting to pay, in the end Ginny had won, but only after a couple of threats of joining me back to the Burrow. I found this rather amusing to watch. When Ginny finally had managed to pay, we went outside. The weather was nice considering the time of the year, with a little sun and hardly any wind at all. It was still chilly, but for once it felt good. "Maybe we should walk to the leaky cauldron instead of apparating any more today? Then you could take the floo back home, and I and Hermione could get something to drink and relax a little before we head back to her apartment. What do you think of that?" Both me and Hermione sighed in relief and agreed. We were at the leaky cauldron just a few minutes later. The walk there had been in silence. I prepared to leave and hugged them both goodbye. I shed a tear again. I found it difficult to leave Hermione again so soon after I finally had reunited with her, "It's been a pleasure seeing you again, Mrs. Weasly. Maybe the three of us could have lunch again soon?" I could feel my face crack into a wide grin, the widest in ages, I was so glad she asked, that meant that she was planning to stick around for a while now. I had finally gotten my lost daughter back after nearly seven years. Oh, how wonderful this day was. I hugged her again and whispered to her, not quite able to speak much, "I would love to, darling, I would love to". I shed a tear again as I stepped into the fireplace and waved them goodbye. Next thing I know I'm standing at my kitchen floor grinning. Arthur is already sitting in the kitchen, waiting for me to tell about the lunch. I embraced him, "oh Arthur, you won't believe this, it's a miracle. She's back, Arthur. She really is back to stay".<p> 


	10. Pushing the limits

_**A/N: Alright. I know this is the second time I'm uploading this chapter today, but I didn't have much time earlier today and didn't have time to write this A/N thingy. The reason why I couldn't wait, was because I noticed it hadn't been updated for like a week or something, and also I had this huge full day test in 'History and Philosophy', so just like before, I felt sorry for myself, and as always, that earns you a chapter :)**_

_**Anyways, this chapter is rather long (more than 4000 words), but I don't think it's the longest one so far, and it's definitely not the longest one that will be.**_

_**But enough rambling from me, now. Almost. I have two more things to say:**_

_**1: This is from Hermione's point of view. And 2: ENJOY :)**_

We said goodbye to Mrs. Weasly and went over to the counter. I was still a little shaky after both the apparation and telling Mrs. Weasly about my past seven years. That was a large step I hadn't been prepared to take. Not yet, at least. Ginny ordered two butterbeers and we sat down at a table in the corner. I must have looked a little distant, because suddenly Ginny asked me, worry was filling her voice;

"Are you okay, Hermione? I'm sorry. This went bad. I shouldn't have let mum cone with us today".

I looked up at her, I could see the worry in every inch of her face, I shook my head,

"Don't worry. I'm glad she knows. And I'm glad you know that other things I told. I'm just still a little shaky after the apparation and shocked of how much I let your mother know, that's all. You have nothing to apologize for".

She let out a sigh, she apparently was glad I didn't blame her for anything. I think that meant a lot for her. She took another deep breath before she spoke again,

"I'm aware this might be way too much for you today, but I need to ask you something. Remember George's store?"

I just nodded, afraid of where this was leading.

"Do you know how well it has been going?"

I just shook my head; I didn't know anything about it.

"Well, it's been going great. He has more than 50 stores all over Europe and America,"

My eyes grew wide. Wow. That is amazing. I truly was happy for him,

"Well, the thing is, he has been planning to expand the store here in Diagon alley, so that he can fit in all the customers, at this point there is lines all the way over here just to get inside. He's really doing great. Well, the thing is, he needs more employees, and wondered if I knew someone who needed a job. I remember how you said you didn't like your current job that much and I thought I would ask you. Now, he doesn't know I was going to ask you, he doesn't even know I'm talking to you again yet. And I promised I would bring you by today if you were interested. You can say no of course, I just thought I should ask you".

She looked anxious again. I think she hate to ask me things, afraid of what I might say. I took a deep breath, not really sure what to say. If I did this, it would mean that I was back in the wizarding world, a world I had been avoiding as much as possible. But if I didn't do this, I had no right to complain about my current job either, and I had been looking for something different lately, but was I ready for this?

I took another deep breath,

"What will he expect me to do, if I do this?".

Ginny let out a sigh of relief, now that I wasn't going to run anywhere, she was safe again,

"well, first he will think he is dreaming, so he will probably expect you to burst into flames or something, then when he realizes it's real, he will accuse me of pulling a really bad joke on him, then we will have to convince him it's no joke, you really are here again. But in the store I don't think he will expect too much, he will probably place you in the back with mail orders at first, because we will have to tell him about you avoiding the magic world, he would be easy on you, don't worry. He has missed you too much to risk anything, just like me".

I took another deep breath. This was going too fast for me, I wasn't really ready to meet any more old friends, but if I were to be in the back, I think I could survive this, "okay. I'll give it a try. I'm not promising anything yet, but I will give it a try".

Ginny jumped up squealing and ran over to my side of the table to hug me,

"Thank you, Hermione. You have no idea how happy I am right now, and how happy George will be".

I let out a short laugh before I became dead serious again,

"Are you sure he will be okay with it being me? I mean, even you blamed me for Fred's death, for all I know, he does to, you know".

I felt tears were about to come, I really didn't know what the rest of the family was thinking of me, and George had after all been Fred's twin and best friend. Ginny pulled away and went down on her knees in front of me; she was very serious when she spoke,

"Hermione. I was the only one stupid enough to blame you for anything. George almost went through the roof in fury when he found out what I said to you. God knows how many times he tried to make me go see you. He probably was the one who took it the worst, even worse than mum, so don't worry. He will be thrilled to see you again, I promise you".

She gave me a reassuring smile,

"Alright then. I believe you. I'll give it a try".

Ginny stood up from the floor and hugged me again,

"Do you feel up to go and see him now, or would you want to wait a few days or so?"

I just shrugged,

"Might as well get this over with, right?"

She let out a sigh, like she was relieved

"Oh, thank God. I promised I would bring you over today"

Ginny nearly dragged me away from the half filled bottles of butterbeer. Moments later we stood outside George's store. I swallowed a big lump in my throat and took a deep breath before we walked inside. I looked around in the store as we walked through it, I had no words big enough to describe how amazing thus was. I felt dizzy as we walked towards the back of the store. Suddenly we stood outside a door that I guessed leaded to his office. Ginny told me to wait outside while she had a few words with him; I just nodded, to amaze to speak. She knocked and went inside without waiting for an answer. I stood outside for a few minutes, not quite sure what to do, fighting the urge to just run away. I was back in the magic world again, and it seemed like I was staying there, too. The door opened and Ginny was there asking me to come in with her. I obediently followed her inside, not looking up. Somehow my shoes were suddenly very interesting and hard to look away from. I heard George speak, I glanced up and saw he had his back turned to me, looking for something in the shelves behind his desk,

"Hello there, Mrs... Excuse, what's your name? My sister failed to inform me of that tiny bit of information",

I was barely whispering,

"It's miss. I'm Granger, Hermione Granger".

He didn't hear what I said,

"I'm sorry, what were you saying? I didn't hear..."

He went silent. He had just turned around and seen me. He looked to Ginny, then back at me for a few times. His mouth was wide open. I don't think he was able to speak at the moment. After a few moments he regained his voice,

"H-h-hermione? Is that really you?"

I just nodded, not quite sure if it had been the right thing to come here in the first place. Ginny just stood there with her stupid, wide grin. She definitely was pleased with herself. I was about to turn around and walk away, back to my apartment and hide away for ever when George suddenly ran across the room and grabbed my arm,

"Is it really you, Hermione? Or is it just some stupid prank my sister is pulling on me?"

Okay, we skipped the part where he thinks this is a dream and went straight to the theory of a prank,

"It's really me, George. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come here. I'll leave now. Goodbye".

I tried to turn around again, but he pulled me back,

"What are you talking about? If it's really you, you have no idea how great this is. You have no idea how much I have been hoping for this day to come. Christ Hermione. It's so good to see you again. I have missed you so bad",

He pulled me in for a hug. After a few moments he pulled back and held me on an arm lengths distance, taking a good look at me,

"It really is you. Wow. How have you been? Why haven't you come seen me? I'm sure you must have been around here at some point?"

I just looked to the floor. I felt a little guilty now that I knew he didn't blame me,

"Actually I have been living just a 15 minute walk away from the leaky cauldron the past six months. I have just been avoiding the magical part if the world since the war".

He looked shocked at the statement,

"Really? The brightest witch of our age avoiding the magic world? Christ, girl. Why? You could have gotten anything in this world that you wanted. Anything at all,"

He paused for a moment and glared at Ginny,

"Well, almost anything, that is. Stupid ass over there just didn't know her own good, you know".

Ginny glared back at him. I giggled, "I guess you're right",

He looked back at me, and a wide grin appeared on his face,

"Well, I'm just glad she finally pulled her head out of her golden ass and brought you back".

I couldn't help myself, I just had to smile. He patted my shoulder and went back to his desk,

"Now, back to business, Granger. So, you would like to work for me, is that so?"

I repressed a giggle. It was strange hearing him this formal in his speech.

"Yes sir. I would like to try working for you".

He smiled at me; I guess he was just joking about being this formal. Ginny just raised an eyebrow and looked amused,

"Would you like to try a position at our mail order department? I assume you wouldn't feel ready to work with customers yet as you haven't been a part of this world for a while, and you are quite famous",

My eyes widened at this new information. I quickly moved my gaze to Ginny and glared at her,

"Famous? Ginny? What the hell is he talking about?"

Ginny's eyes widened,

"Crap! I'm so sorry, Hermione. I completely forgot to tell you about it. The thought never really occurred to me since it was you and I sort of thought you already knew about it. I am so sorry".

She took a step backwards and raised her hands in defence. I was sure that if I attacked her she wouldn't fight me; she would probably think she deserved it, but I decided to blame Ron. After all he had been writing me letters and he could have mentioned it to me. Besides, I guess I should have guessed it, after all I was a part of the trio who finally ended Voldemort, but I had never really thought of it, I had been living in the muggle world avoiding the magic world for seven years. I sighed,

"It's okay. I guess I should have guessed it. Besides, if anyone should be blamed, it's Ron. He could have said something in one of his letters".

I turned back to George who still looked kind of shocked of me not knowing.

"Yes, Mr. Weasly. I would love to take the position in the mail order department. As you said, haven't been a part of this world for a while, and I'm probably a little famous too, and I don't really feel ready to face all of that just yet. Just coming here today is more than I was sure I could handle".

George seemed to have problems not to laugh,

"Wonderful. Well, since I already know you are the greatest witch of our age, I would like to offer you the opportunity and ask you to come for your first day on Monday".

Oh shoot. Magic. I probably had to do magic at work. I turned my back to George and started to swear under my breath. Ginny was quickly by my side and laid an arm around me,

"Hermione, if you are worried about doing magic, stop it. You were always the brightest one at school, and I am sure things haven't changed. Besides, you will only have to deal with simple magic, like getting things and addressing, so don't worry, you can do this".

I looked at Ginny, I was worried about this, and Ginny spoke again,

"Look, if you think things are that bad, I'll help you tonight, okay?"

I nodded and turned back to face George,

"Alright. I'll be here Monday morning then",

George grinned widely again and rose to shake my hand,

"wonderful, I'm looking forward to be working with you".

I smiled. This had gone better than expected, things were about to get back to where they used to be, and that was good. Right? 

"Oh, Ginny. I don't think I'll be able to make it to your game tomorrow, but good luck. I know you can do it, you are the best, after all".

He waved us goodbye as we walked out. 

The next minutes went by without me really noticing, I was just thinking about how I had pushed so many limits today. First meeting with Mrs. Weasly, then apparating followed by telling Mrs. Weasly about the past seven years before I had pushed the biggest one, stepping back to the magic world and gotten a job at George's store in Diagon alley. Suddenly we were standing outside my apartment. How the hell did we get here without me noticing? I just shook my head and went inside. I went for the elevator, the backyard might be an apparationpoint, but it was still a muggle building. I pushed the button to get it here. Ginny gave me a sceptical look, clearly wondering why I just stood and waited in front of the wall,

"It's an elevator, Ginny. You have the same thing in the ministry, except this one only goes up and down. Now get here or walk the stairs, my legs don't function enough to walk them right now".

My voice was a little harsh; I intended it to be more like joking. Oh well, I guess we can't have everything we wish for. Ginny just shrugged and came to the elevator. It arrived just a few seconds later and took us to the fifth floor. I unlocked the door and went inside. I walked straight to the couch and fell to it. I was so exhausted. Ginny followed just a few seconds later. She sat down on her knees by the couch and started to stroke my hair,

"I'm sorry Hermione. I put too much pressure on you today, with mum and George and everything. I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry".

She looked genuinely sorry, sitting on the floor apologizing. I sat up on the couch and patted the seat next to ne, signalling for her to sit with me. She rose and sat down on the couch, keeping a few inches between us, just to be careful, not quite sure of how close I wanted her. I moved closer to her, first looking and her, then looking at my hands in my lap before I asked her, with a low voice, barely audible;

"Ginny? Can you please hold me? I just need someone to hold me right now",

She just nodded, putting both her arms around me and cradling me in her arms. It felt good. It actually made me want to kiss her, but I fought the sudden surge. It was too soon yet. I took a deep breath,

"It wasn't you who pressured me; you just asked and made sure I could decline. I was the one who accepted everything. I just pushed my limits way further than I would expect myself to do today. I just feel a little exhausted right now. I mean, you haven't been around for even a week yet, and already I have a new job and I almost feel like a part if your family again. It's just a lot to take in. It all came so sudden, you know. But please don't think this is your fault. I brought this on myself all alone".

Ginny just kept holding me, she didn't say a word for a few minutes, considering what she said next, my best guess is that she was thinking of how to say what she said next,

"You know, Hermione, when you were gone, fighting Voldemort and all that, I always had nightmares about you. About how they brought the news of you being captured and tortured to madness before you got killed. Always something like that. I would wake up several times a night, crying. Then I would fall asleep again, just to have a nightmare like that again. Every night from the night you left until the night you got back. I knew you were safe, then. But of course, those nightmares were only replaced by new nightmares. Nightmares of what I said to you that night. My last year at Hogwarts was awful, I hardly spoke to anyone; I just studied, played quidditch, ate and slept. I had no desire to spend time with people talking about the war; one reason was because I was fighting in the battle of Hogwarts, but mostly because everyone was always talking about you and how the three of you saved the world. You are a hero, you know. You and Harry and Ron. And when I first spoke with other people outside giving quidditch instructions at practice, they always asked me about the three of you since they all knew how I knew you and everything, or they would ask me to tell about the last battle. I hated it, but what I hated the most, was not having you there to help me trough it. I know that is all my fault, I could have pulled my head out of my ass and written back to you, but I guess I was just too angry at you for leaving me for so long and never writing me to let me know you were safe. Well, alive, at least. I guess you never really were safe out there. I know it was selfish, and I always knew you couldn't, even if you wanted to, but still, I kept hoping, wishing. I think that is part if the reason to why I told you off. I wish I never had done that. I keep thinking of all the time we lost, all the time we could have had together, but lost because I'm such an idiot. I am so sorry, Hermione".

She was on the edge of crying now, tears were filling her eyes. I sat up again to face her properly. I lifted my hand and wiped away a tear that had escaped. I pulled her into me and embraced her, soothing her while she silently sobbed into my chest. We sat like that that for a few moments while I decided how to say my next words,

"Ginny, this is all part of the past. Yes, you did hurt me, but you are here now, and that's what matter. We can work trough this together and figure everything out. Yes, it will take time to heal the wounds, but together we can do it. And do you know why?"

She just shook her head, stick sobbing,

"Because we love each other. At least I know I love you, I can't say you love me, but I think you do. At least enough to work this over. You loved me enough to come back, and that's all I need. Yes, this will probably take a lifetime to work through everything, but we can do it. We have each other, and that's all we need, right love?"

She nodded. I suspect she wasn't able to speak at the moment, but he looks in her eyes told ne everything I needed to know, she loves me. Despite everything, she loves me. Moments later she had regained her voice and spoke in a husky tone,

"I love you, Hermione. More than you can ever know. I always loved you, and I always will, no matter what. You are everything I ever needed or wanted. I know I don't deserve your love because of all I said and did to you. I have no right to expect you to love me back. I know I'm lucky to be here with you, to have a chance to fix my mistakes, and I will never forget that, you will always be a reminder of what I did, and I deserve that".

I sighed,

"Ginny love, I'm really happy you are back and all, but don't put yourself down like that. Yes, you hurt me, but it's the past now. What matters is the present. We are together now, and you have all the future to make it up to me".

Ginny looked stunned, and I just had to giggle,

"I'm just joking, Ginny. You don't have to make it up to me. Really. Just promise to never leave me again, alright?"

Ginny laughed trough her tears,

"I promise. I'm here to stay, now. I swear".

I put my forehead to hers and put one of my hands at the back of her head, holding her there. Tears was falling from the both of us now, a mix of happy and sad tears. We looked into each other's eyes. A voice inside my head told me to kiss her, it was the right time. She must have been thinking the same thing, because she moved slightly forward, our lips were almost touching now. Her breath was tickling my lips. This was the right thing to do, I was sure. I closed the distance and we finally met. Her lips felt soft like silk on mine. Her tongue soon touched my lips, asking for entrance, and I willingly gave it to her. Her tongue was careful as she entered my mouth and began to dance with mine. This was the right thing, I was sure. The kiss became more urgent and I could feel one of my hands gripping around fistfuls of hair and the other one was wrapping itself around her waist. Her hands were innocently laid in my lap at first, but all of a sudden I felt them wrapping around me, pulling me tighter to her. I didn't resist at this. This was where I belonged, in her arms, and she in mine, I knew that for sure. She pushed me down to the couch, placing herself on top of me. She let a moan slip trough into my mouth. God, how I had been longing to hear that sound from her. I suddenly realized where this was leading, and I sure as hell weren't ready for that yet. The moment she broke for a second of air, I grabbed my chance before this got completely out of hand. I moaned her name and gently pushed her away before I sat up,

"Ginny, however much I enjoy this, I'm not sure if I'm ready for this yet. Right now my urges tell me to fuck your brains out right here, right now, but my head tells me not to. I want to do this the right way. I don't mean waiting until we are married and all, but just until I'm sure I won't lose you again. I just don't want to get attached to you again, and then loose you once more. That kind of pain, I would never be able to handle. I'm sorry, Ginny. Please don't be angry with me".

I was practically begging her, she looked a little hurt, but I think she agreed to what I was saying.


	11. Date night?

_**A/N: Chapter 11 is here. It's been a while since I updated it last, but I have been busy running around drunken, acting like an idiot. You see, here in Norway we have 17 days (usually more, since we start last Friday of April) where the seniors of high school celebrate the end of school, and we celebrate until May 17**__**th**__** (which is the national day of Norway), and well, we spend most of those days drunk, so I haven't really had much time to think about fanfiction and stuff. But now I'm back and sober again, so now I can write and update again.**_

_**Oh, and in case any of you are also following my other story **_**Unexpected love**_**, I will try to finish writing it tomorrow, or maybe even tonight after work :)**_

_**Anyways, now it's time for you guys to read this and enjoy it :) And a couple of reviews is something I would appreciate as well :)**_

I was a little hurt about what she said, but I couldn't really blame her, of course she was a little insecure about me right now. I had only been back a few days and already I was on top of her, but she didn't seem angry, and that was relief, still, I was the happiest woman on earth now.

The kiss had not been just a kiss, but a promise of something more, a promise of a future. The thought of a future with Hermione made me smile. She looked confused, so i spoke,

"I'm just thinking of a future with you, imagining how wonderful it will be",

her eyes widened. Why? What did I say? Shoot, I said will, not would. Shit, shit, shit. That wasn't good,

"Will?",

she asked, looking slightly confused. I decided to act confident,

"yes. I want to spend my life with you, and you know, Hermione Jean Granger, I get what I want",

I winked at her to signal to her I was joking about the last part there. She raised an eyebrow at me and crossed her arms over her chest,

"really now, Ginerva Molly Weasly? And who says you can have me? What if I change my mind and don't want to spend my life with you?"

I raised an eyebrow too,

"oh, you wouldn't change your mind?".

Hermione smiled,

"and why is that, dear Ginny?"

I leaned forward and whispered in her ear,

"Because nobody can resist the charm of Ginerva Molly Weasly",

I nibbled at her earlobe as I leaned back and gave her a flirting look,

"is that so?",

she said. I had big troubles keeping my face straight and to not jump her right then and there,

"oh yes, Hermione, that is very much so. And if you don't believe me, I will have to convince you, and that could be rather unpleasant for you, you know".

She uncrossed her arms, getting ready to defend herself,

"oh really now? You know what, Ginny? I think it's all talk and no action with you, so I'm not really that worried, to be honest",

her voice was mocking. Oh, that's it, she is so going down. I jumped at her, and she squeaked, I was hovering over her, using one of my arms to pin both of hers above her head, thank god quidditch required strong arms, and I used the other hand to tickle her. She screamed for me to stop, but hell if I were, she totally had it coming for teasing me like that.

I tickled her for a while, and her voice was getting hoarse after all the screaming and laughing. I let go of her hands and just laughed. She pushed me away, I expected that much, but her next move took me completely off guard, instead of doing nothing more, she pushed me so I was lying on my back now with her hovering over me, I just smiled.

She pinned my arms over my head just like I had done to her moments ago. I know I could easily have broken her grip, but why would I want to do that? She gave me a seductive smile, and I just waited for her to start tickling me, instead she just said;

"the revenge is a dish best served cold, love. Well, more like hot, this time",

her words had me confused. What was she talking about? She leaned forward and whispered in my ear,

"do you really think I don't know what I'm doing to you, miss Weasly?"

Oh god, her voice was enough to make me shiver.

"That's what I thought",

she whispered before she bit my earlobe. She kissed my neck, and that made me shiver again. I could feel her smile against me, but she just continued, occasionally with a light bite. God, she was really making me hot now.

I let out a repressed moan and bit my lip. She placed her free hand at my waist. Oh God, I needed her now. This was just too much for me to handle. Suddenly she rose from the couch and patted my waist,

"it's time to cook. It's been hours since we ate anything, and you must be starving. I know I am".

I groaned, but stood up too,

"bloody tease",

I muttered under my breath, thinking she didn't hear me. I was wrong,

"Oh, no. Not really. You made your bed, now you have to sleep in it too",

She just grinned. Great, a bed. Like that would take my mind off things. Stupid tease. I glared at her, but she completely ignored it, grabbing my hand and dragged me to the kitchen. I hadn't even thought about food. I was too busy with other things.

She spent about an hour and a half cooking the pizza thing. She showed me what ingredients we needed to put in, and patiently answered all my questions about all the different electrical equipment we used.

All the weird stuff muggles invent to make life simpler for them. It will never stop to amaze me. After a while the pizza was finally finished and ready to be served. We sat the table together while the pizza was in the oven. We even lit some candles. It looked really romantic. I admired the table and smiled. Hermione gave me a wondering look,

"It just looks so romantic, with the candles and everything".

Hermione walked over to stand behind me, she wrapped her arms around me and rested her head on my shoulder,

"I know. It may be the first, but it won't be the last".

I smiled at her statement, it wasn't the last one. I had more to come, we had more to come. We had all our life ahead of us, and nobody could stop us. This was our time.

She kissed my neck and interrupted my line of thought, somehow my mind stopped working when her lips met a part of me. Even back in Hogwarts that had happened, she could casually brush her lips against my fingers, the top of my head or something, just to soothe me if I was upset about something, even then my mind would stop working, no matter what.

A touch of her lips, and everything was forgotten. I turned to her as she was letting go of me and smiled, but instead of letting her walk away, I wrapped my arms around her neck, her hands found their way to my waist, resting them there. I looked her in the eyes, asking for her approval, I saw something in there that told me to kiss her, and I did.

This kiss was even more careful than the last one, if that's even possible. Her lips parted slightly, inviting me inside, I slipped my tongue inside and started some kind of a slow dance with hers. I pulled away for air a few seconds later; as I pulled away I felt her teeth on my bottom lip, carefully nibbling at it. I smiled at this move. It felt good. She smiled to, and a second later she turned her back to me and walked out to the kitchen. My eyes were still closed as she moved away. About three seconds later I began to function again and followed her. She was about to take the pizza out of the oven and put it on the bench when I arrived. I leaned in over her and smelled,

"mm. Smells delicious",

I sniffed the air again,

"the food smells good too",

I smirked at her as she turned around and pushed me away playfully with a smile,

"you're such a flirt. Now move. I have to slice it up so you can shove it down your throat more easily, without choking".

I gave her a mock glare, and stuck my tongue out to her. Before I even knew what was going on, she had launched herself at me and bit my tongue. I quickly pulled it back into my mouth and stole a kiss from her. I don't think she expected it, because suddenly she pulled away and looked at me with one raised eyebrow. I shrugged innocently,

"what? You jumped me and bit me, I just removed my tongue. Can't blame me for you having your lips there".

I winked at her, she just pushed me away playfully again and went back to the pizza.  
>30 minutes later we sat by the table, both full beyond our limits, and I thought I didn't have a limit,<p>

"wow. This was delicious, Hermione. Even better than that take-home we ate yesterday",

she smiled at me,

"told you so. We should do this more often",

she groaned before she continued,

"well, maybe not eat this much, but eat together".

This was great, progress were made, and hopefully soon things would move on. First goal was to get her to visit at the Burrow and meet up with the rest of the family again. I made myself a goal to get her to celebrate Christmas with us. It was still a few months there yet I had plenty of time. I nodded at her,

"that would be wonderful. How about we have homemade dinner with each other each Friday? The team needs to rest before Saturday games anyways, so I have the whole day off. We can share the cooking, you when we are here, and I'll cook for you at my place every other Friday. How about that?"

She thought about it for a moment before she nodded,

"alright. You have yourself a deal there. Next Friday at your place, you are cooking. This should be interesting".

I gave her a mock glare,

"I'll have you know that I'm actually a very good cook. Mum taught me cooking before I was allowed to leave anywhere".

She giggled,

"I guess I'll find out next Friday, then".

I stuck out my tongue again. No attack this time. We cleaned the table and she wrapped the leftovers in, she turned towards me,

"I know you're not leaving for a couple of hours yet, but before I forget, would you like to take this with you? You could let the others have a taste too. I'm sure they will enjoy it",

I nodded. I knew Ron and George would love this, well, Ron wouldn't get any this time, but I would stop by George and let him have a taste on my way home later tonight. Dad would be thrilled, just because it was a muggle dish, and mum, she would ask for the recipe, even if she didn't like it herself, just because one of us liked it. I let the leftovers be at the kitchen bench until it was time to leave.  
>We went back to the living room, I sat down at the couch, Hermione stood at the floor, looking at me,<p>

"would you like to watch a movie?",

I was confused, watch a what?

"Uhm. Sure, sure. It doesn't hurt, right?"

Hermione giggled,

"no, it doesn't hurt, I promise. It's hard to explain what it is. I'll get one started, and you can see for yourself. You'll enjoy it, I'm sure. Just sit back, and I'll take care of it".

She somehow got the thing started. She said it was a movie named _"Alice in Wonderland"_, she said she thought I would enjoy this one. It was one of her favourite and had been for as long as she could remember.

Hermione joined me at the couch, she sat down closer to me than I would have expected her to do, she was only a few inches away from me. I looked at her as she sat down and smiled at her. I was excited about this thing, it was almost like pictures, only this one was sort of like a story, more like a book in a picture form. It was really fun. Muggles can be so inventive when they don't have magic to help them. I had to show dad one of these someday, he would go through the roof from excitement.  
>We had only been watching that movie thing for about 15 minutes when I noticed Hermione started to move. Was she going somewhere? No, she just moved a little further away from me. This gave me a moment of disappointment. She seemed a little tense because she didn't sit back right away, she looked thoughtful for a moment before she spoke,<p>

"mind if I rest my head against your lap? I prefer to lie down while watching a movie at home, you see".

Relief. I lifted the hand that was resting in my lap and smiled at her,

"go ahead, I don't mind",

She smiled and lay down. She was on her back with her head turned towards the movie. I put my hand on the back of the couch, the other one was resting against the armrest. I sat like this, more interested in watching Hermione in my lap, than the movie. Only a few moments passed before she broke her gaze away from the movie and began to scowl at me. What did I do wrong now? She scowled at me like that for a few moments; I think she expected me to take some kind of a hint. She gave up, sighed and grabbed the arm that was resting on the back of the couch and laid it to rest on her stomach. I just smiled down at her and automatically began to stroke her. It just felt weird to let the hand just lie there, you know.

By the end of the movie, she sat curled in my lap, I was holding my arms around her and she was crying. I tried to figure out why, but decided to wait for her to tell me, and just hold her until then. When the movie ended, she dried her tears and I asked her what was wrong,

"It's nothing, really. I always cry at the end of this movie, I always hope that just this once she will stay there and never go back to the real world".

This had me confused,

"why don't you just change the movie, then? There is people there, just tell her not to go back?"

She laughed at me. Now what?

"You can't change the movie. Once it's on the disk, you can't change it".

This was even more confusing,

"Then why do you keep hoping for it to change?"

She giggled, and then she sighed as she wrapped her arms around my neck, still sitting in my lap,

"It's a muggle thing. But I will try to explain it to you some day. I just have to figure out how first".

I nodded. This world was too confusing, but I wanted to learn about it because it was Hermione's world as well as the wizarding world. She belonged in both. She glanced at the time,

"When do you have to leave?"

I thought about it for a second,

"I should leave no later than 11. I have to get up early and get ready for the game and all. It starts at nine. I should be there at the latest by 7:30",

I pouted. I was no fan of mornings, but I loved quidditch too much. She jumped from my lap and ran to her room, as she came running back she laughed at my confused look before she finally explained the sudden rush,

"you promised to help me with magic, remember? Me all freaking out at George's, you all "_I'll be the hero and save you",_ remember?"

I had completely forgotten about it, I had been too caught up in the present all night, with all the kisses, and talking and food and everything to think about anything else. I just nodded. Hermione raised an eyebrow, she knew I had forgotten, but she just laughed at me and signalled for me to come towards her. I stood up and went to where she was standing, next to the balcony door,

"Now, I'm really nervous about this, so I need a few moments outside before we begin".

I nodded and followed her outside. The fresh, cool air felt good in my lungs and against my face. I took a few deep breaths and just enjoyed it.  
>A few minutes later, we went back inside. I pulled out my wand while she took a few deep breaths to prepare herself for what came next.<p> 


	12. Magic and changes

_**A/N: Alright, so it has been a really long time since I last updated this story, and I'm really sorry about that, but it has been really busy lately with exams and being drunk.  
>Well, chapter 12 is here now, and I promise it won't take this long until next chapter will arrive.<strong>_

_**This chapter is from Hermione's POV.  
>Read and enjoy :)<strong>_

I held my wand ready, not really sure if I was ready. I took another deep breath and nodded, a signal to Ginny that I was as ready as I could get.

"Why don't we start with something simple? Like _expelliarmus_? Do you remember the wand movement?"

I nodded again and pointed my wand towards Ginny. I silently mumbled the spell and watched Ginny's wand fly through the air and towards me. I grabbed it and threw it back to her. She smiled to me,

"Good. After the spell you cast on me that first night, I knew you could do this, though. Now, would you like to try an _accio_ spell? You would need that one",

I just nodded and pointed the wand to a bookshelf,

"_accio_, _Lord of the Rings_". The book flew towards me and landed in my hand. I went over to Ginny and handed it to her,

"I know you probably still don't read much, but I think you would like this story. It's a muggle story, though, but I'm sure you'll like it".

Ginny looked at me and answered,

"during my last year at Hogwarts, I began to find pleasure in reading. I find it rather relaxing, actually".

I smiled widely. Who would have guessed? Everything had turned out so much more different than I would have ever expected them to do. She had to tell me everything some day. She put the book down at the table and turned back to me,

"okay, this seems far too easy, how about we try something a little more difficult?",

I nodded, she gave me an evil grin. This couldn't be good. She clapped her hands together and spoke,

"wonderful. Let's try a _patronus_ charm, then",

my eyes widened. Shoot. Alright, I knew this. This would be no problem. I had done it so many times before, I had no problem doing it again, alright, here we go, then. "_expecto patronium_". Nothing happened, Ginny looked confused, so was I. Oh right, happy memory. Shit, did I have any happy memories? Couldn't remember. I was about to panic for a second, then I remembered the moment when I realized she was back to stay, she wasn't leaving. I focused on the memory and muttered the spell again. This time something happened, a silver raven was now floating around Ginnys head. She looked confused, so did I.

"I thought..."

I stared at it,

"Yeah, me too".

Ginny turned to me,

"I know this would be way out of line, but do you mind meeting up with dad? You don't have to come with, I could ask him about it when I get home, but I have never heard of something like this before, and what to know if he has. I can either get him to the leaky cauldron, or I'll owl you later?"

I thought about it for a second,

"Screw limits. I need to know this right away. This scares me",

Ginny just nodded, produced her own patronus charm, whispered a few words to it and sent it off. She turned back to me,

"He should be there soon. We should run now. It's probably nothing serious, but we should find out sooner, rather than later".

I quickly walked over to her and grabbed her hand,

"Get us there. It may not be serious, but hell if I take any chances. I want to know now".

My voice was demanding, but she just nodded. Moments later my feet touched the floor again, just like my head did a second later. I felt dizzy. I had to get used to this again if I wanted to travel larger distances without throwing up. Ginny lifted me up and carried me out of the room. This had me confused, but as soon as we entered the bar area, I realized that the leaky cauldron probably had its own room you could apparate to. Clever thing to do. Ginny put me down by a table in the corner, the very same we had been using earlier that day, just before we went to see George. What a day.

She returned moments later with three bottles of butterbeer, one shot of firewhiskey and a funny green liquid I swore I would never touch. Like that would happen,

"The green one is for the nausea after apparating and hitting your head, it will take the pain you might have too, it will make you really cold on the inside, hence the butterbeer, but before you drink the butterbeer, you will have to drink the firewhiskey to get the taste from the green one away. It tastes like shit, but will cure you".

Alright, too much information for my dizzy little head right now. I gave her a confused look and she smiled at me, probably understanding how confusing she was,

"First green, yucky one".

Bottoms up. Christ! This really was awful. Ginny held up the next one,

"Now to the yummy firewhiskey",

oh joy, bottoms up again, but a little more happy about this one. She held up the butterbeer to me while I tried to lick the last few drops from the glass. She took the glass away from me, probably a good idea,

"And now the butterbeer for warmth",

I swallowed down half the bottle at once. I took a breath, and swallowed down the rest. Christ, I didn't even know I was thirsty. A few minutes later, Mr. Weasly arrived. Ginny stood up to let him see where we sat. He came over and took a glance at Ginny, who nodded. I raised an eyebrow and mentally noted that I had to ask her about this. No, never mind, Mr. Weasly's face broke into a wide grin and he suddenly embraced me,

"Hermione. It's so great to see you again. Just amazing".

He then let go of me and sat down at the other side of the table. Ginny sat down next to me. I grabbed her hand under the table, I didn't know what the whole changing of patronus meant, and I was nervous about it. Ginny's hand felt relaxing and comfortable. She squeezed my hand reassuring before she spoke,

"What can you tell us about the changing of a patronus?". He thought about it for a moment before he said anything,

"Well, for a patronus to change, is rather uncommon, but sometimes it does, it happened to Tonks when Sirius died in the ministry many years ago",

I was shocked at this, but didn't say anything.

"If you have suffered severe trauma and pain, it can change. Have you had any of that lately?"

He looked at me. I shook my head and spoke,

"No, Mr. Weasly. Not lately. Ever since the day the war ended and Ginny told me off, I haven't experienced any kind of trauma, really",

he looked shocked,

"Not since the war? But why have it changed now? This makes no sense at all",

I hesitated a moment while he was mumbling to himself,

"Mr. Weasly? It may have changed back then. I haven't used my wand since then, not until Ginny came over a few days ago".

His eyes widened,

"Really? Wow. Who would have thought. That does explain why you have been so difficult to trace trough the years".

I raised an eyebrow and moved my gaze to Ginny, but I didn't say anything. We were going to talk about this later. Mr. Weasly probably understood he had said something he shouldn't have, because he swallowed and quickly continued,

"Anyways, that could explain why you didn't know sooner. But the most important thing is what it changed to. When you first produce a patronus, it can be a random animal, but sometimes it isn't. If the animal is not random, it usually can't change, it takes major trauma to change that one. What was your first patronus?"

This was confusing, I had to read up on patronuses sometime. I could probably get some books in the Diagon alley tomorrow.

"An otter",

I answered.

"The otter, a strong, smart animal. It knows what it takes, and are a great leader. It builds, and it always build strong. To break down something an otter has built, will take a lot of time, strength and stamina. You had no random patronus, it was you in animal form",

I blushed,

"So this can only mean that either the war, Ginny or a combination of both, was very traumatic to you, what is your theory on that?"

This I did not expect, I didn't know anything about patronuses, much less at the theories, I just guessed something,

"Well, I used patronuses during the war, and even after.."

I paused, I hadn't told Ginny about what had happened at Malfoy manor with Bellatrix, and wasn't sure if I was ready to talk about it with her yet either. Mr. Weasly knew, though. I had to meet at the ministry and give my part of the story to them, just so they could have it recorded and to use for history on a later basis, I took a breath and continued,

"..what happened", Ginny gave me the same _we-are-talking-about-this-later_ look I had given her earlier. I just ignored her for now,

"Even after that happened, I produced an otter patronus, up until the day of the battle of Hogwarts. It may have been a mix of both, but I think what happened with Ginny, might have pushed me over the edge. It's the best theory I have, at least".

Mr. Weasly nodded,

"That would make sense. After what happened during the war, I was sure it would have changed then if it was to change, but I guess that wasn't the worst that could have happened to you",

he turned to Ginny,

"Do you know why a patronus changes?"

She shook her head,

"When you face a dementor, you are forced to remember all your worst memories. When you create an patronus, it is made of happy memories. A happy memory can only be defeated by one thing, to experience the worst thing one can imagine, for some, it's torture, others losing someone or something. For Tonks it was Sirius. Can you guess what it was to Hermione?"

Ginnys eyes widened, and tears appeared, she whispered,

"Me"

Mr. Weasly nodded slowly. Ginny whispered again, but this time her voice was a little stronger,

"But why didn't mine change?"

My heart dropped, looking me wasn't her worst fear. I was pathetic,

"Losing Hermione is your worst fear?",

Ginny nodded,

"Well, once again I only have a theory, but Hermione wrote you letters, you never truly lost her. You knew she was within reach, but for Hermione you were gone for good. As far as she knew, you were no longer someone she could rely on to be there if something happened".

Both me and Ginny nodded. This made sense,

"But Mr. Weasly? You said something about the meaning of the animals, and it is never random what animal you get what it changes. Well, mine is a raven now, do you happen to know why?"

Mr. Weasly took a deep breath before he answered,

"A raven, you say. Well, a raven is also a very bright animal, but according to mythology it has been through a lot, suffered. This is a very strong animal, but can also be very sly. You can find a raven both high and low, and it's good at hiding. Again, it's very bright and strong, it just had a rough life"

I nodded, not quite sure what to answer to this. Alright, we knew it was not anything dangerous, and I knew I had some explaining to do now, and so did she. She turned to her father,

"Thanks dad. I'll be back at the Burrow in an hour or so",

he nodded and turned to me,

"It was nice to see you again, Hermione. Don't be a stranger now, alright?"

I nodded, but truth is, right now I couldn't promise anything, Ginny had to tell me about the tracking thing, and that could be very bad. And she would ask about what had happened, and I wasn't sure if I could tell her about it right now. It may have been many years ago now, but it still gave me nightmares.

We apparated back to the apartment, easier than walking, and we needed every moment of privacy that we could get now.

I sat down in the couch. No, more like fell down at it. Ginny went to the kitchen and got me a bottle of water from the refrigerator. I'm sure she would have spent ages checking it out if I hadn't been at the couch, about to throw up or pass out. I had to begin to apparate again. I tried to sit up to drink, Ginny got down on her knees again and supported my head. Thank god, because I'm not sure how long I could have kept my head up on my own. As I was about to put my head back down, I felt that I couldn't, something was stopping me from it. I lifted one of my hands to feel under my head and feel what was keeping me there. A knee? I felt some more, it was a complete set of legs. I felt something caress my hair, a hand. I opened my eyes. Wait a minute, opened my eyes? When did I close them in the first place?  
>I saw Ginny, my head must be resting on her lap, and it must be her hand stroking my hair,<p>

"How are you feeling, love? You passed out, gave me quite a scare, you know".

I was seriously confused now, passed out? Why hadn't I felt it coming? I just shook my head,

"I'm feeling fine. A little dizzy, but fine. I just need some fresh air",

Ginny nodded and helped me to stand up. She held an arm around my back and followed me outside. I sat down on a chair and took a few deep breaths,

"Ginny, please tell me the truth, what did your father mean about tracking me through the years?"

She sighed, but didn't hesitate much before telling me,

"Remember I told you about how I kept meaning to come see you? Well, I never knew where to find you, so I had dad tracking a few of your letters, but I always chickened out, you know. And since you haven't used magic, it was more difficult to know where you were since the letters had little to no trace of magic around them. Sort of creepy, now that I think about it".

I let out a short laugh. Ginny looked confused at me,

"Oh, aren't we the perfect match? You are getting me tracked, and I collect every word ever written about you in a magazine. Such a wonderful couple".

Ginny had to laugh at this too,

"Yes, we are indeed a charming couple. Good thing we were stalking each other, then, and not some random persons".

We laughed at this for a couple of minutes. Then Ginny became silent. This couldn't be a good sign,

"Hermione, can I ask you about something?",

I sighed. I knew what she wanted to ask about,

"You want to know what your dad meant the he talked about what happens to me during the war, right?"

Ginny just nodded, suddenly very interested in my hair. I think she understood it was something big, because she seemed a little ashamed. I sighed again and sat up, turning around to face her,

"Ginny, I need you to look me in the eyes, you need to know I'm telling you the truth"

She didn't look up at me, so I put one hand under her chin and lifted her face, more or less forcing her to face me,

"A while before we broke in to Gringotts, we were captured and held prisoners at Malfoy manor",

I slid up my left sleeve, where the word '_mudblood_* was carved into my skin. Her eyes widened at the sight, but she remained silent in order to let me continue,

"I was tortured by Bellatrix, she marked me with this word, but also she was happily handing out _crucio_ curses to me. I thought you knew about this, I was sure Harry or Ron would have told you about this?"

She shook her head, her eyes still the size of dinner plates. I shrugged,

"Well, I'm glad they didn't. It's a rather painful memory, I never planned for you to know unless it was necessary"

Ginny stroke two fingers over the old wound,

"That bitch! If she weren't already dead",

she lowered her head and kissed it carefully. She raised her head again, stick looking at the word and whispered;

"Never again. I'm here now. Never again",

I think she was speaking more to herself than to me. Suddenly she threw her arms around me and began to cry,

"I am so sorry, Hermione, I am so sorry. I'll never let anyone hurt you ever again, I promise".

At the last word I froze for a second before I pushed her away,

"Don't promise anything like that, Ginny, it's not something you can control. Don't promise me something you can't keep",

Ginny raided an eyebrow,

"Fine, then I swear I will hunt down every poor bastard that ever hurts you and I'll hex him or her into the next millennia. How does that sound?"

I giggled, but nodded,

"If that's what you want, then go ahead".

Ginny grinned,

"wonderful".

I guess she would never change. And speaking of the devil,

"Now, how about I kiss you now? And then I have to leave".

Leave? Why did she have to leave? Oh right, quidditch. Stupid game. I just nodded, and leaned slightly forward as a sign for her to go on. Her lips met mine, they were soft, but yet demanding. Her kiss told me everything I needed to know right now, about how she wanted me right now, but wouldn't push me to anything. What a wonderful woman I had.  
>She broke the kiss,<p>

"I want you so bad now, so I should leave. Better not push my luck".

I pouted, but I knew she was right. Besides she needed the focus tomorrow, and that would be all gone if I fucked her brains out tonight. Not that she would be able to focus if I kept on tempting her either. I loved knowing what I could do to her. I gave her one last peck on the cheek,

"Good luck tomorrow. I'll be listening to the game as always. Owl me about you next visit, will you?"

She nodded,

"I might drop by tomorrow night, though, but I'm not promising anything yet".

This made me smile. I wasn't sure why, because I was still worried about the whole me and Ginny thing. I still needed space, at the same time as I needed her here. Fuck, this had me all confused. She went in to the kitchen and got the book and the leftovers from dinner. After that she leaned over and gave me a peck on the cheek before she disappeared and left me there alone, once again.


	13. Quidditch game

_**A/N: Alright, so it takes about forever to upload, and I'm really, really sorry about that. My original plan was to upload this chapter tomorrow when I would have some better time to re-read the chapter and edit every mistake I made writing this. Well, ended up just reading through it in like 30 minutes, so I just hope I managed to get the worst of my mistakes fixed. If there is still any left, please don't mind them. I just thought you should get one more chapter before I left for my holiday, I'll be back next week, and I will do my very best to upload a few chapters when I get back.**_

_**Well, now I just want to answer a question I received the other day, someone (sorry I can't remember who you were right now) asked me if Harry would show up at some point, and the answer is yes. Unfortunately I really don't like the character, so I made him a big time asshole. And I will also include other known characters, Ron will eventually come back for a visit, and so will a few other characters do as well, like McGonagall, Neville, Luna, Draco and a few others :)**_

_**Anyways, I'm off in like two hours, and I haven't even began to pack my stuff yet, and I'm about to get a slight panic attack right now, so please enjoy the chapter and leave me some love :)**_

_**-FreshInc**_

I apparated to George's apartment to give him a taste of Hermione's homemade pizza. I prayed for him to still be asleep, he would be too happy to see me if he weren't. Footsteps. I groaned. Just my luck, he was still awake.

"Hey, George",

I greeted, knowing there was no way in hell I would go unnoticed. Wrong. George hadn't heard me arrive, and came running with his wand raised,

"Christ, Ginny. You scared me. I didn't hear you arrive".

Fuck me.

"I was just dropping by with done food I think you should try. It's a muggle dish called pizza. It's delicious",

He accepted the food I gave him and put it at a plate as I shoved the rest of it in my pocket.

"Care for some tea?"

He walked to the kitchen and gestured for me to follow, I stayed put,

"No thank you. I have to get going. I was just leaving the food for you", he came rushing back and grabbed my arm as he dragged me along to the kitchen,"

Sorry sis, it wasn't really a question",

I groaned, this wasn't heading anywhere I wanted to go,

"Fine, ten minutes, and then I'm off. I have a game tomorrow, remember?"

He nodded eagerly and pushed me into a chair. Seconds later a cup of tea was in front of me, and George was seated in the chair at the opposite side of the table,

"No lies, what happened tonight? Are you finally getting together?"

I sighed. What was the point of lying? He would know soon enough already, stupid George, too observant for his own good. Alright, a little white lie wouldn't hurt him,

"Nothing happened, we ate, talked, ate and talked some more. We aren't heading for a relationship or anything yet, at this point I'm just trying to gain her trust again",

He raised an eyebrow and I took a dip of the tea as he spoke,

"Right, right. Is she a good kisser, then?"

I choked on my tea. How the bloody hell did he know? I coughed and tried to catch my breath. My voice was still a little hoarse when I managed to speak again,

"Bloody hell, George! First of all, it's none of your bloody business, and second of all, we didn't kiss"

He raised an eyebrow. Fuck! He didn't believe me.

"Right. Sis, you're too easy to read. It's written all over you. Besides, you have a hickey on your neck",

He smiled satisfied at himself. Shit. Stupid Hermione and her teasing. I moved my hand to the left side of my neck where I knew the hickey was,

"Screw you, George. It's nothing between me and Hermione at this point"

Great, he didn't believe this either. The worst part, was that this was actually the truth,

"Whatever you say, sis. Just remember that you sent me off to save her the most. I know how she feels about you, probably even better than she knows herself. But be careful with her, she's still broken and afraid you will tell her off again",

I nodded as he stood up. I knew he was right, she was too easy to break yet. Fuck. I really had screwed her up. I just had to pray it wasn't beyond repair. I stood up, and spoke,

"I should leave now. It's late and I need to get up early".

I didn't wait for him to say anything else, I just turned on the spot and appeared in my room a moment later. I went straight to bed, hoping mum didn't hear my footsteps as I crossed the floor. I really didn't feel like talking to anyone else right now. I stared into the darkness for a while before I drifted off to sleep, thinking about everything that had happened that day. Especially the kisses. There was hope.

I woke the next morning and went straight in to a panic attack. It was 8:00. I should have been at the pitch 30 minutes ago. I wrote mum a quick note and transformed it to a bird before I sent it downstairs. I then quickly put on a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt and turned on the spot. I apparated on the changing room where all of the team was still present. They all jumped as I arrived and simultaneously began to speak,

"Where have you been?",  
>"Why are you late",<br>"We were so worried".

Alright, for the first time since I began to play quidditch, I was late for a game, I had always been early for every game and every practice, no exceptions.

"Sorry, overslept. Got a little later in last night than I planned to. But that doesn't matter, Gloria, go get my broom from the shed while I change, will you? The rest of you, go outside and fly some rounds and warm up".

They all nodded and headed out of the changing room. I quickly got changed and waited for Gloria to get back. I knew that she would ask questions, and preferred to do it in private and just get it over with. She returned a few moments later with my broom,

"Was it Hermione that kept you up late?",

She asked bluntly. Straight to the point. Good, maybe this would be less painful then,

"No, it was George".

It wasn't exactly a lie, just a little twist to the truth. She didn't have to know that I had only been at George's place for 15 minutes or so. No, I wasn't that lucky,

"Liar, I know you spent the day with her and that hickey on your neck proves you stayed late. Got any?"

I sighed. I guess I would just have to tell her the truth and get it done,

"Yes, I stayed there later than I meant to, yes she gave me that hickey, but it isn't proof of anything and no, I didn't 'get any'. We're not there. But I did indeed go see George afterwards. He also asked questions like you. You should hook up, would be a perfect match, or something",

I scowled at her. This was meant as an insult, but clearly she thought otherwise,

"Really? I always thought he was rather handsome. Could you get me a date with him?"

I glared at her. This just wasn't going to be my day, that's for sure. I didn't even answer her, just waved my hand as a signal for her to get out.

Well alone I laid my head in my hands and sighed loudly,

"What's the matter, Ginny? Did Gloria say something? She looked rather satisfied when she walked out of here".

Christ. Was it really that hard to leave me alone with my business? Well, at least it was Grace this time, she knew when to shut up,

"It's about last night, isn't it?"

I just nodded, hoping she would go away,

"Alright. Let me know if you want to talk about it. I'm always here, you know",

I nodded and stood up,

"Thanks, Grace. It's not really a big deal, though, just a little confusing and stuff".

She just nodded, but didn't say anything else. I was so grateful to have her here. Why hadn't I asked her to get my broom instead of Gloria?

We headed out to the pitch where the rest of the team was in the air already. I watched them all fly, and then I suddenly decided to do something drastic, something very stupid and idiotic.

"Team! Everybody down here. Right now!"

I bellowed. I didn't even think I could shout that loud. The team landed at the ground and gathered around me,

"I want to do something different in today's game. We have all practiced everything and everybody knows all the moves. I want to make a few changes, just to try it. I know you are probably thinking this is stupid and all, but I just have a gut feeling I should do it. And since I'm lucky enough to be the captain, neither one of you have any saying in this. Not even you, Gina",

I looked at her as she was about to protest. My glare silenced her and I continued my speech,

"I know we haven't discussed this, but I decided this just two minutes ago. Gina, you will play as usual, Gloria and Grace, sorry, you will start at the bench. Greta and Gemma will play instead. Gloria, you're out, Gray, you play instead. Gwen and Gretchen, you play beaters today instead of Georgia and George. Glynn, you play instead of me. Gina, after one hour you switch with Ginn, and if the game continues longer than that, we'll take it from there. Everybody back in the air, you have 15 minutes until I want you back in the changing room".

They all looked a little surprised at everything, and honestly, so was I. I went straight back to the changing room to prepare the new team set up, who was changing with who and so on. 15 minutes later the team came stumbling into the room and sat down on the benches around the room. I stood up and glanced around the room before I began my speech,

"Today's game is important to us, this game will along with the game against the cannons in December decide if we will play in the finals and the championship after new year. And because this is such an important game, you probably wonder why I changed pretty much the whole team",

They all nodded,

"Well, I won't answer you why. I just felt like it was the right thing. But it shouldn't matter. We are all equally good, so this should be piece of cake. I doubt I will play today, I will avoid it for as long as possible. This move will take them by surprise, and that should be an advantage to us, just use it right. Now, we are the best team in history, and there is no need to telling you this over and over again",

I was silent for a second, listening to the cheering of the audience who had arrived at some point during the last few minutes,

"I think it's time for us to get out there and kick some arse".

The team raised their fists and cheered. We would win this game easily. I quickly jumped my broom and flew up to the commentator box with the new starter team. As I came back down to the team, I heard his voice roar all over the stadium,

_"Hello and welcome to today's game. Today we have two great teams playing for a chance to play in the finals and the championship next year, please welcome Puddlemere United. The seeker of today is Johnny Krestoc, and Oliver Wood is playing keeper. He has announced that this will be his last season, and we are sad to let him go. Chasers are Peter Semp, Gregory Haspot, and William Westings, beaters are Frank Jenson and Troy Dalton",_

About half of the crowd was cheering the team as he said their names, but he didn't pause before he continued,

_"As for the Holyhead harpies, captain Weasly has chosen a very different team setup for this match. Watching the goals today is the only one from the main team, Gina Parks, the chasers are Gemma Hasten, Greta Krutz and Gray Herald, the beaters are played by Gwen Grengs and Gretchen Wrench, today's seeker is Glynn Jones. It will be exciting to see if this was a smart move from Weasly, or if she just posted them their place in the finals. Let the game begin"_.

The commentator did his job and commented on every little detail in the game, but I didn't pay much attention to what he said. I only focused on every move my team made, making sure they played like they should, and looking for signs that either one of then had to be replaced. 30 minutes in to the game, the team scored again

_"Krutz scores! The harpies are now ahead, 70 to nothing. What a great game. Weasly obviously did the right thing with changing the starting team today"_.

So far so good, of only Glynn would catch the snitch soon, then I could get on with my business and even find the time to drop by Hermione. For the first time in my life, I felt the game couldn't be over soon enough.

15 minutes later, we were up 110 to 20. I suspect the only reason they scored was because Gina felt sorry for them. It was easy scorings, and she was one hell of a keeper. I smiled to myself and made a mental note to ask her about it after the game. I was deep in thoughts about this when the commentators voice suddenly became excited,

_"Was that the snitch? It must have been, both Krestoc and Jones are racing straight upwards, who will catch it? Where did it go? Both seekers are slowing down and scenes to be disappointed. Oh look at that, Jones is diving like she has a dragon chasing her. Krestoc is a little slow and falls behind. Will Jones catch the snitch once again? YES SHE DID. JONES CAUGHT THE SNITCH. THE HOLYHEAD HARPIES WINS AGAIN, 260 TO 20. WHAT A VICTORY. THEY ARE NOW MORE OR LESS GUARANTEED A PLACE IN THE FINALS. THEY ONLY HAVE TO WIN WITH MORE THAN 40 POINTS AGAINST THE CHUDLEY CANNONS THE FOURTH OF DECEMBER, AND THEY WILL PLAY IN THE FINALS JANUARY 15th. CONGRATULATIONS!"_

I ran down to the pitch with the rest of the team close behind. I ran straight to Gina and lifted her up. I was sure I could have kissed her, right there and then. The only thing stopping me, was Hermione. Wait, Hermione? She wasn't supposed to be there, was she? She said she was going to listen to the game at her radio, didn't she? But yet, she stood there by the entrance of out changing room. Had I taken a hit by a bludger on the loose or something? I turned to Grace and pointed towards Hermione,

"Am I imagining things, or is there really someone over there?"

She looked to the direction I was pointing and nodded,

"Someone's there. It's her, isn't it?"

I just nodded, unable to speak a word,

"Want me to distract the team so you can get her out of here?",

I just nodded again and mouthed a thank you to her. She waved me off and I ran towards Hermione as fast as I possibly could. I didn't stop to greet her, just dragged her along until we were out of sight. She gave me a confused look as I tried to catch my breath. After a few minutes I was finally able to speak again,

"Sorry about that, just wanted to get you out of sight before anyone else saw you",

She looked hurt. I replayed the words in my head before I understood what I had said. Shit!

"Shoot! I'm sorry Hermione, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that you don't want to meet the team yet. They will only be inviting themselves to mums imaginary wedding. I swear I didn't mean it the way it sounded at first".

I was panicking. Please don't say I ruined everything just now. Please. She nodded.

"I guess you're right. But what about that girl you talked to? I know she saw me",

I tried to think back a few moments ago. Seems like everything had been wiped off my mind. Oh, right. Grace.

"Oh, that was Grace. Don't worry, she's alright. She's probably the only one on the team besides me that understands the idea of privacy. But they don't matter. What are you doing here? How did you know where to go? How did you get here? When? Why?"

The questions just fell out of me, and something about it was apparently very funny, because she laughed,

"George stopped by my place this morning. About 30 minutes before the game began. He told me he got my address from Mr Weasly and came to ask me if I wanted to come with him to watch the game. I said no at first, then he spent 20 minutes convincing me to come. At last I agreed and, well, here I am. I thought it was too soon, and I found it rather scary, but here I am. Too bad you didn't play any, tough. Would have loved to see you in action".

I was stunned. My jaw had dropped and I just stood there like an idiot. Hermione was here, and she had watched the game, this was the biggest suprise ever. I had to remember to thank George someday.

"Anyways, congratulations on the victory",

She lifted my chin, closing my mouth, and then she kissed me. It was only a quick kiss on the lips, but a kiss nonetheless. My jaw dropped again. This was just a cruel dream. It had to be. How could this be real? I mean, sure, we spent parts of last night kissing, but hell if I thought she would kiss me again this soon. This was too surreal. I laid one hand on her cheek and the other one on her arm, she raised an eyebrow and gave me another confused look,

"Sorry, just need to check if you are real",

I mumbled. She smirked and pinched me in the arm,

"Is this real enough for you? Hm. Guess we both should realize we are real and all if this is really happening".

I winced at the sudden pain and went for a glare but as soon as I saw her smiling at me, my whole face cracked into a wide grin instead,

"Yeah. I guess you have a point there. Anyways, want to go somewhere else? The team will surly find us here, and that won't be a pretty sight of that happens".

She nodded eagerly. Alright.

"Cool. I just need to let them know so they won't start a search for me or something. I'll only be gone a couple of minutes. Will you be waiting here for me?"

She just nodded again. I quickly turned around and saw that the pitch was empty. I just ran all I could towards the changing room. I stormed through the door. One would think I had an army of Death Eaters chasing me.

"You're all here. Great. Sorry, I'm in sort of a hurry, so I'll just congratulate you with the excellent game today. You played better than I could ever hope for. I'm really proud of each and every one of you. Now I have to run. Glynn? Grace? Will you please join me for a moment outside?"

They nodded, Sofia looked slightly worried about this, but Grace was calm as ever. We went outside, and so turned to face Sofia,

"Those two goals, you let them in on purpose, didn't you?".

She looked ashamed as she was staring at the ground and barely whispered an answer,

"Yes, miss Weasly. I'm sorry. It won't happen again".

I'm sure she was about to cry. I went over to her and laid me hands on her shoulders,

"Look at me",

she slowly raised her gaze, but soon she was looking me in the eyes,

"Don't apologise. It's okay. I understand why you did it, and it was a noble thing to do. You made their loss just a little less painful and embarrassing. I'm surprised you only let in two. You have a very promising future in quidditch. Now, don't worry about it, okay?"

She vaguely smiled and nodded before she whispered,

"Thank you".

I didn't say anything else at the subject,

"Get back inside, and I'll see you at practice on Monday morning",

she nodded again and went back to the rest of the team. I turned to Grace,

"Follow me. I have someone. I want you to meet".


	14. George's Story

_**A/N: Alright, this chapter is for all of you who have wanted for the next chapter to be uploaded, just because I want to please you all :)**_

_**As for you who have just brought shit in the comment field with no constructive critique, well, screw you. Bring me something constructive instead of all the shit you have brought.**_

_**As for those of you who have complained about the paragraphs and such in one or two of my chapters, it was a mistake once or twice, and I'm certainly not going to change it now, so just leave it.**_

_**Other than that, I'm glad most of you seem to enjoy my story, and I hope I will bring much more joy with this :)**_

I waited for Ginny to return. She had been gone for almost twenty minutes now, she had promised to be back soon.

"Ten more minutes, and then I'll go over there",

I thought to myself. Just as I finished the thought, I saw to people walk towards me. One of them looked like Ginny, but who was with her? As they came closer, I saw it was that girl who had pointed at me. What was her name again? Something with 'f', I was sure. Or maybe it was 'd'. I wasn't really sure, now that I thought of it. The other girl stopped a few feet away and Ginny came over alone.

"Hey. Sorry it took so long. Had to speak with Gina",

I was confused. Who the bloody well was Gina? Then I remembered the girl a few feet away. I nodded towards her,

"Her?".

Ginny turned around, as if she didn't know anyone else was around,

"Her? No, that's Grace. Gina is our keeper. The let in a couple of goals, just wanted to check if it was on purpose",

I raised an eyebrow,

"And was it?".

Ginny chuckled,

"Yeah. But it doesn't matter. It was a noble thing to do. Made their loss a little less humiliating for them".

Yeah. I didn't really understand this, but I just nodded and agreed with her. I was sure she was right.

"Anyways. Why is Grass here? You have to go right away, right?".

Ginny didn't reply at first, just turned around and waved the girl, a signal for her to come to us. As the girl walked over, Ginny spoke,

"I just want you to meet her. She's one of my roommates and the only one who has a heart".

As she spoke the last word, the girl arrived,

"Hermione, this is Grace. Grace, this is Hermione. The same Hermione I've been ranting about since we got to know each other".

Grace reached out a hand to greet me. I responded to this and shook her hand,

"It's nice to finally meet you, Hermione. It's good finally have a face to the name".

She chuckled at this. I just smiled and said;

"It's nice to meet you too".

She dropped my hand and looked at Ginny. They didn't say anything, but I guessed they had some kind of a silent understanding between them, because suddenly Ginny sighed and nodded. Grace turned back to me and spoke;

"Would you like to have lunch with me tomorrow? Just the two of us?".

My eyebrows shot upwards and I just gave her a confused look. Ginny had apparently been ranting about me for a while, why the hell would she ask me out then? Even in front if Ginny. Why didn't Ginny kill her or something? She must have known about my feelings for Ginny. She must have realized what she said, because suddenly she looked panicked,

"No, no, no, no. That was so not what I meant. I didn't ask you out on like a date or something. I just thought with me being her best friend, and you obviously her soul mate or something, I just thought I wanted to get to know you better. And I just thought a lunch tomorrow would be a good way to go. I really didn't mean it in a date way, I swear".

Okay, this was just insane. Why had Ginny let her ask this? I really didn't want to meet up with her friend tomorrow. Alone. I looked at Ginny for help, she looked at me and spoke;

"Relax, Hermione. You can say no. After all, the two of you has just met, it will be okay if you said no. Besides, if you say yes, the lunch will take place at my apartment, so you would be close to yours, and it would be safe. She wouldn't dare to do anything scary there even if she was crazy enough to think about hurting you. So don't worry, you can say no, however, if you accept, you will be perfectly safe. I promise".

She grabbed both of my hands and looked me in the eyes to reassure me I would be safe. I thought about it for a moment and sighed. I looked to Grace,

"Screw it. I have pushed myself so much lately, well, yesterday, really, so what the hell. When should I be there?"

They both looked surprised. I don't think they expected this, Ginny's jaw had dropped and Grace just stood there with eyes at the size of plates. It looked like neither one of them had guessed this would happen. Grace was the first one to speak again,

"Wonderful. Why don't you come over around 11?"

I nodded and turned to Ginny,

"What's the address?".

She looked at me, still surprised I had accepted. She quickly shook her head and answered me, "uhm. It's Podder street 8, apartment 3b".

I nodded and made a note on a piece of parchment I had retrieved from my beaded handbag. I put the note back in the back and turned my attention to Grace,

"Alright. I'll see you at lunch tomorrow at 11, then".

I meant this as a hint for her to leave now. I wanted to be alone with Ginny now. Luckily she understood and said her goodbyes. She turned around and headed towards the changing rooms again. I turned to Ginny again and grabbed both her hands, like she had done to me only moments ago. I didn't say anything at first, just looked at her. She was biting her lower lip, almost like she wanted to say something. I remembered how she always used to walk around chewing her lip, like she was afraid something would slip if she wasn't careful.

"Is everything alright?"

She didn't say anything at first, just moved her gaze down and started to search our hands, like they held any answers,

"Yeah. No. I mean, everything is fine, I just.. Hermione, do you want to go out with me? Like on a real date. Muggle-style. I have read about them, dinner, movie and a goodnight kiss at the porch. I know it's a little soon, I just had a really good time last night, and I want to have a proper date with you. Not that I don't think last night counts as a date, I just want to take you out for real, with dinner and..."

Christ, she was just babbling. I clasped my hand over her mouth to silence her.

"Will you shut up if I say yes?"

I asked her jokingly. She nodded eagerly, and I felt a wide grin under my hand. I carefully removed my hand, but she wasn't silent,

"I don't know much about muggle-dates. So I might do it all wrong and stuff, but I'll..."

I sighed and silenced her again. With a kiss this time. I'm pretty sure she was taken by surprise, because she gave no response at first. It took her only half a second to catch up with what was happening, and she kissed me back. I smiled.  
>I pulled back a few minutes later. Very careful , just in case she started to babble again. She remained silent with a wide grin. A few moments later she managed to speak again,<p>

"Should I take that as a yes, then?", I chuckled, but nodded.

"But,"

I said. She looked nervous at this,

"Only as long as it's not a Friday, we already have plans that day, you know".

She sighed in relief and nodded,

"Alright. No Fridays, then. How about tonight?"

That took me by surprise, I didn't expect it to be this soon. She gave me a nervous look,

"Unless you already have plans, of course?"

I quickly began shook my head,

"No, no, no. I don't have any plans. You just took me by surprise. I'm fine with tonight. I just have to ask you one thing".

She was nervous again, but nodded,

"This should be just a date. No talking about the past, no trying to work things out. Just a normal date between two people who like each other. You okay with that?"

She sighed and nodded once again,

"That's what I hoped for. Just a normal date focused on the present. No past, no future. Just now".

I smiled. This was good. Exactly what I needed.  
>She gave me another kiss. God, how I love the feeling of her kissing me. I just can't describe it, no matter how much I try. As she pulled away, she playfully bit my lower lip. All if this really made me want her. I felt a tingle in my stomach, and I began to rave about sleeping with her, to have her in every way possible. I imagined how I would gently caress her and touch every inch of her beautiful, naked body. The thought of kissing her neck and tease her until she screamed, was getting me really aroused now. <p>

She broke my line of thoughts when she sighed and began to speak;

"I should get back to the burrow, now. I need to let mum know I'm not joining them for dinner and stuff. I'll be back later tonight and pick you up for our date, though".

We both grinned wide at the words, and I felt the tingle in my stomach again at the words _"our date"_. This was going to be good, I was sure. I nodded and gave her another quick kiss. Nothing big, just a reminder of everything that had happened the past few days. Without a word, she turned on the spot and was gone. I sighed and turned to walk away.  
>As I got out of the stadium area, I began to look for George. He had promised to meet me out here and wait for me as I spoke with Ginny. I saw him standing a few yards away, waving his hand towards me. I waved back at him and hurried over to where he was.<p>

"Now, how did it go?"

I really didn't want to answer his question, so I bought myself some time by asking the stupidest question I could think of,

"How did what go?" He rolled his eyes and grabbed my arm as he sighed,

"Okay, then".

What? Would he really let me go with an answer like this? That would be too good to be true.  
>Moments later we arrived in the hallway of my apartment. He turned to face me and raised his eyebrows,<p>

"Alright. Now we have a little more privacy. You are Hermione bloody Granger. You know very well what I mean".

Shoot. I knew it would be too good to be true. I sighed and lead the way to my living room. When we were seated, he made a pot of tea and two cups appear. He took one of them and turned his gaze towards me again,

"Well?".

I sighed again. I guess I wasn't getting away from this.

"You know, George. You shouldn't ask questions like this, your sister is involved. Could be nasty details involved",

I paused, hoping he would let go. I guess it wasn't really a big deal, just kisses and we made plans about a date later today. I don't know, I just didn't feel like talking about this. Could be because he was my boss now. He just raised an eyebrow and continued to look at me. I took a deep breath and told him the main things,

"I just planned lunch with that friend if Ginny, Grace or something".

Alright, some of the main things, then. He just shrugged and looked at the tea cup in his hands,

"Fine, I'll ask Ginny tonight, then. I have some business at her place anyways".

I didn't think before I spoke again and blurted out;

"She's at the burrow, telling Mrs. Weasly she won't be over for dinner tonight and getting ready".

Shit! Why did I tell him this? It was sure to catch his attention. He quickly moved his gaze to me again,

"Really? Why? She always has dinner there to celebrate after they win a game".

I closed my eyes and mentally slapped myself. Why did I make a big deal out of this anyway? I decided it was probably because I didn't want to make anyone getting their hopes up about us. Christ. Why the hell did I overthink everything and make a big deal about anything in my life? I really had to pull myself together and stop this behavior, it couldn't be healthy at any rate,

"She's taking me out tonight, like on a date. Now shut up".

His face broke out in a wide grin, similar to the one he had gotten when he saw me yesterday,

"Like a proper date? For real? This is great. When is she coming to get you? Because you are going to look bloody fantastic. And I'm going to help you".

He pulled his eyebrows together, like he was thinking really hard about something. He cocked his head to the side and continued,

"That sounded _so_ gay. No offence or anything, but I'm just not like that. Bloody hell".

I laughed at him. This was rather fun. I had never imagined him to be anything like this.

"Really now? And since when did you care about such things like how someone looks?".

I was sure he would glare at me. Turns out, I was mistaken. He put on a smile and said;

"Ever since I found out my favorite sister is taking my favorite female school mate out for a date. Well, second favorite. Sorry, Hermione, but Angelica is over you, but only because she's my wife".

I had just taken a sip of my tea, and choked on in, causing me to cough and splutter tea all over myself and George. This was nothing I had ever expected. George? Married? I was taken off guard really bad by this,

"Wait, what? Are you married?"

My mouth was open. I forgot how I shut it after I finished talking.

"Oh, Ginny didn't tell you?"

I shook my head, unable to make any kind of sound,

"Oh. Well, we got married 4 years ago. After the war I got really depressed. Broke up with her, closed the store and ran off. Spent time just travelling. A few months here, and a few days there. I couldn't manage to get over the loss of Fred. At some point, I stayed three months in Denmark, this was the last three months, though. And I went to this quidditch game. You see, I found magic societies other places instead of becoming a muggle. That was easier for me since I have never been a part of the muggle community. Anyway, I went to this game, Puddlemere united against some Danish team I can't even pronounce, and there she was. She was a reporter for _Quidditch today_, and I had landed a temporary job at some Danish newspaper, _Det Danske magisamfunnet_, I think it was. I learned basic Danish,"

I raised an eyebrow at him,

"Fine then, I used a translation spell. But that's not the point. We both were at the game to write about it, I had arrived just a few minutes after her at the journalist box, and as I entered, there she was, just sitting there. I tried to avoid her, sitting far behind her, and I planned to run out of there before she could see me. Luckily I met another friend there, someone I had met when I was in Australia. She didn't say anything at first, just stood there waiting for me while I talked to my friend. I hadn't even noticed her waiting for me, so when I turned around to walk, I froze at the sight. I just stood there and had no idea what I should do. She walked over to me, and before I had a chance to say or do anything, I was lying at the floor and felt my head throbbing. She had punched me, like really hard. I asked her why she had done that, and she said it was because I had run off and nobody knew where I was. I told her it was the best for everyone if I was gone and all of that. I told her how I had stayed in touch with Ginny, but only because of you. But don't worry, Angelica doesn't know why, just that something had happened. Remember how I was usually the one here to comfort you when Ginny received certain of your letters?"

I nodded, and started to understand why,

"Well, I could sort of relate to your decision. Of all the people she sent here, I was the one who could understand it the best, because I had more or less done the same thing. But that's not the point, we were talking about Angelica. Well, after she hit me and she had blamed me for about everything, we had dinner. We talked and got through things, I explained everything to her and sorted things out. We had gone out a couple of times before she told me she had to go back to England. Sneaky as she is, she got me drunk and tricked me to going back with her, and she made sure we left the same night before I had the chance to get sober again. And if that wasn't enough, I was woken up at the burrow the next morning by my mum screaming her lungs out. Angelica stood behind her with a cruel grin. She was prepared to do anything to make me stay. A month later I reopened the store, and was seeing Angelica exclusively. But I was still pretty closed up. Never talked about anything and stuff, so after a while she told me I either had to get in to therapy, or she would leave me. It was an easy decision to make. Long story short, we got married a year and a half later, and we still are".

He finished his story, and things was making more sense now, at least to why he was the one I mostly saw when I was really down and not sure if I could handle things. Me and Ginny really had to sit down and talk properly sometime soon.  
>George looked like he was deep in thoughts,<p>

"Hermione? Can I tell you something? Something very secret and something you can't tell anyone about, not yet, at least".

I raised an eyebrow at him, after everything he had been listening to of my whining through the years.

"George, I can't even count how many times you have been here for me, listening to my whining about Ginny, and never once you complained about it, and you lost your brother, not once I asked you how you handled it, I only cared about myself, and never a word to complain about it. I owe you my life so many times over, I don't even have a number for it. You could torture your own family to madness, and I would keep silent if you asked me to. I owe you too much. Well, Ginny is an exception, but that is different. Anyway, you can tell me anything, and I won't say a word, I swear".

He didn't move or change in any way, his voice was low, like a whisper,

"Angelica is pregnant. With twins".

Something had to be wrong with my ears. George than cracked a wide grin,

"I'm going to be a father".

So I did hear right, then. I was shocked, but then, half a second later, I copied his grin and embraced him in a tight hug,

"Congratulations. I'm so happy for you guys. You'll do great, I know it".

He hugged ne back,

"Yeah, I hope so. Good thing we still have a few months to figure everything out, right?"

He laughed, but not his normal, cheerful laugh, but a rather nervous one. I nodded,

"You'll do great. You have your mother on your side, and she did a great job, and you have all your siblings, I'm sure they will be ready to help, and I'll help you as much as I can, no need to worry about anything, the kids will have a wonderful upbringing, I'm sure".

He nodded back to me and spoke again,

"Anyways, I haven't told anyone yet, it's only you, me and Angelica who knows, so just don't tell anyone yet, alright?".

Once again I nodded.  
>George stood up,<p>

"Okay, let's go shopping. You need to look amazing for my sister tonight".

I groaned and tried to protest. I couldn't afford shopping right now,

"Geo-orge",

he just silenced me,

"no protests, Miss Granger. We are going now, and don't worry about anything, you will only have to wear the clothes, it's my treat".

I groaned again, but stood up and followed him out the door, this was no fun.  
>For some reason, George had decided we were shopping in muggle-London. We went through s countless number of stores, and after about three hours, I had more than a few new sets of clothes,<p>

_"For future dates with Ginny"_,

he said. At each new store, I had groaned, and for each new item of clothing he had bought me, I pouted like a little child. I hated shopping and I hated when someone bought stuff for me. It wasn't really a good day for me, then. I dragged him out of another store after he had bought me two pair of shoes,

"George, I'm hungry and tired. I want to go home",

he chuckled and said;

"Well, you didn't want these clothes either, you still have them. But I'll make you a deal, we eat lunch now, I saw some place nearby I want to check out, then we can go back to your place, and we'll get you dressed for your date, alright?"

I groaned for what had to be the millionth time that day,

"Fine. As long as I can get home soon. I hate to be away from home for too long".

He ignored my tone, and just began to walk towards the place he had mentioned without another word.  
>Another hour went by before I was home again. I had eaten in silence, refusing to say a word to him. He looked amused as we ate, probably pleased with himself and the day. I hated him a little bit right now.<br>We finally got back to my apartment, and I stomped inside with all the bags I was carrying, I threw them at the couch and headed for the balcony to have a cigarette. George appeared in the doorway and spoke with wonder in his voice,

"Hermione? What are you doing? Since when did you smoke?"

I sighed,

"When I got back to the muggle-world I took up both smoking and drinking. How do you know about cigarettes anyway? It's not something wizards usually know about?"

He shrugged,

"I don't know, some wizard communities are more intertwined with the muggle-world, I guess. After my time away I learned that the British community is not a very common way of living on a world basis. Most places in the world, a wizard lives in a muggle-neighborhood, and their kids go to muggle-school before they are sent to a magic school, they have muggle-friends, and some of them even have part time muggle jobs, I guess I picked it up somewhere, but I never thought much of it, I just know it's bad for you".

I nodded and began to wish I has moved outside Britain and experienced other parts of the world as well. We stood in silence before I spoke again,

"George? Why did Ginny always send someone else? She said she always chickened out, but that can't be all, can it?"

I looked at him with my brows furrowed, trying to figure out the answer myself. He sighed,

"I don't know much about this, I just know that she was very afraid to meet you. She was worried how you would handle it if she showed up. She thought that maybe you would act somewhat similar to what you did,"

I raised an eyebrow at this, I never told him what happened,

"Ginny told me. But the point is, she was worried it would happen. I think that's why, subconsciously at least".

I nodded. I didn't feel the need to say anything  
>George began to walk towards the door again as he spoke,<p>

"We should begin to get you ready. Ginny could be here any time".

I groaned and followed him back inside. I would have settled for jeans, t-shirt and a sweater. Thanks to George, I would now look overdressed when Ginny arrived, and we would have to spend time getting me out of whatever George put on me.  
>A while later I felt like an oversized dress-up-doll. He spun me around so I was now facing him,<p>

"Alright, I can take care of your hair, but I'm afraid you'll have to take care of your make-up yourself".

I groaned, "Geo-orge, I don't use make-up. Just let me go the way I am. I'm already way overdressed".

He raised an eyebrow at me,

"Hardly. But fine, we'll do this the hard way then, unless you will cooperate with me?"

I crossed my arms and shook my head,

"I'm good like this. I don't need to dress up anymore. I'm happy with this".

He sighed and pulled out hid wand. I felt my eyes grow wide. I backed up and hit the wall, "I'm sorry, Hermione, but this is happening. _stupefy_".

I felt the spell hit me, and I fell to the floor. I was knocked unconscious and had no control whatsoever. Stupid George.  
>About forty-five minutes later, I was awakened again. I glared at his and growled,<p>

"What the hell did you do that for? I told you I didn't want to".

Stupid George smiled at me as he spoke,

"And I told you that if you didn't cooperate, we would have to do it the hard way".

I just growled at him, unable to think of anything to say. He pushed me towards a mirror. I tried to fight him off so I could get out of this, just my luck, I lost and soon I found myself in front of a mirror with my arms crossed. I refused to look at my reflection, just told him how much I hated him for doing this to me. George just chuckled at this,

"Trust me, you won't hate me for this tomorrow. Now turn around and look at yourself".

I turned around, and was stunned, I hardly recognized myself. I stood there in a blood red cocktail dress and black shoes with heels and my hair and makeup was done the same way as I had done it for the yule ball in fourth grade. I had to admit, I was stunning, but hell if I would let George know what I was thinking,

"This is stupid, George. I'm way overdressed and I'll look just stupid next to Ginny. This is going off this very moment".

George gave me a stern look, a look that professor McGonagall would have given Harry and Ron after they did something they shouldn't have,

"Hell no, miss Granger. I'll body lock you if I have to. Just trust me on this, you will look great next to Ginny. Please just leave it like it is".

I gave him a suspicious glare,

"What the hell is going on? What is Ginny planning? Tell me! You all know I hate surprises",

I was almost shrieking at him, but he said nothing, just chuckled and looked at something behind my back, but I was too angry to turn around and look myself.

"Don't worry, you'll see soon enough".

Ginny's voice reached my ears and I turned around. She stood there in a midnight blue dress, a strapless one, and blue shoes with low heels. Her hair and makeup was amazing, I can't even begin to describe it.


	15. Date night, part 1

_**A/N: Alright, so it's been quite a while since I've updated this thing, and I'm really sorry, especially to those of you who have been waiting for it. Well, all I have to say is that I've been really busy with work and writing this other story, but now it kind of stopped, turns out, one of the main characters are a vampire, and I have no idea how the story is going to continue. I really didn't plan for that, and it took me by surprise.**_

_**Anyways, well, here's the next chapter, and I hope you will enjoy it.  
>I can't promise I'll upload again too soon, but I'll try as soon as possible :)<strong>_

_**Oh, and by the way, this is from Ginny's POV.**_

_**-B**_

Hermione was beautiful. I was impressed, George really had done a good job with her. I had to remember to thank him some day. I walked over to her and gave her an awkward hug. It wasn't because I felt weird kissing her in front if George. Well, not only that, but mostly because this was our fresh beginning. This was our first real date, and I wanted to do it properly. Okay, guess I shouldn't have hugged her like that either, then, but I just had to feel her. I breathed in her sent, she smelled the way I imagined heaven would smell like

.  
>"Are you ready to leave?"<p>

She nodded, but I could tell she wasn't very happy with me right now, probably because she hated surprises. Yeah well, she would get over it as soon as we got there, I was sure of that.

George walked from her room and too her livingroom,

"Well, you girls have fun tonight. I'll be going now. See you tomorrow, Ginny. And I'll see you on Monday morning, Hermione. Bye".

Me and Hermione both answered at the same time;

"Yeah, goodbye, George",

We waved at him as he turned on the spot and disappeared. The second he was gone, I turned to Hermione,

"We should get going soon, before we run late".

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me,

"Run late to what?"

I was sure she already knew it was going to be a suprise.

"You'll just have to wait and see, it's a suprise",

I answered and winked at her. I could almost hear her growl at me.

"Ginny! You know how I hate surprises, even the good kind. I won't go until you tell me where we are going",

She said stubbornly. Poor girl, she has lived too long among the muggles.  
>I walked over the floor, so I was now standing in front of her,<p>

"Oh, yes you are".

And with that, I grabbed a hold of her arm and apparated us away.  
>We landed in the middle of a busy street, far away from London. Hermione jerked her arm away from ne and began her ranting,<p>

"Where the bloody hell are we, Ginny? Take me home right now".

I calmly looked at her and spoke,

"Don't worry. This is where we will spend most of the night. There is only one other place we are supposed to go, but it's a few more hours until we are going there, yet. And no, I won't take you home, not yet. If you hate the place I'm taking you too, we'll go home. I promise".

She groaned,

"This better be better than damn good. But where the hell are we?"

She pouted. I felt sort of sorry for her, but this was good, and I was sure she would love it.

"We are in Moscow, an...".

"MOSCOW? What the bloody fuck are we doing in bloody Moscow?"

Alright, not exactly the response I had imagined, but it had to do.

"I'll get to that soon if you will let me finish".

"Sorry",

She muttered. I just nodded and continued,

"This place is unique. You see the store over there? It sells scary muggle things like those phones of yours and stuff",

She paniced,

"What the hell? Why the fuck did you apparate us in the middle if a bloody muggle street? Secrecy, remember?"

I just ignored her and pointed to the store next to it,

"See that one? It sells quidditch equipment".

I almost burst into a laughing fit. I had never seen Hermione this confused. She tried to do the math, but after a few moments, she gave in and sighed,

"Care to explain to me why there is a quidditch shop in a muggle street?"

She looked around and saw several other magical stores, even muggles walking in to some if them.

"Is it something like st. Mungo? Where the shops are hidden from muggles and stuff?"

She added.  
>I shook my head,<p>

"No, as I said, this place is unique. Muggles and wizards live side by side here. After the war, a lot of muggles added two and two, and they got four. Many of them ignored it, but some of them liked the idea of having a wizard next door, they said they felt safer then. So the ministry took action and made this. This is a southern part of Moscow who fell to ruins after some muggle mini war, or something, so the ministry claimed it and made it a mixed community where wizards and muggles could live together. It's really amazing. You can't move in without a check from both our ministry, and the ministry created here, if you are a muggle, that is. Because of the secrecy. The idea of this, is for us to be who we are amongst muggles and being accepted for it".

Her jaw had dropped. I was sure she thought this had to be some kind if a bad joke. I chuckled at the sight, and she turned to me,

"Are you serious? Muggles and wizards? Really?".

Her eyes was large. I nodded and grabbed her arm again,

"Yes, but that's not why we're here. Come on".

She reluctantly followed me down the street. We stopped in front of a movietheater and I headed over to get tickets. When I came back to her, she had wrapped her arms around herself and was shivering.

"Come on, let's get inside. I'm sure it's warm there, and I heard they have butterbeer there. That should get you warm again".

She nodded and followed me again. Much more willingly this time, as we got inside, we sat down in the theaters bar and ordered butterbeer. I had a sip and felt the warmth flow trough my body. It felt really good. I turned to Hermione who was still shivering, but seemed to be warmer than she had been moments earlier.

"Okay, at 9:30,"

I took a quick glance at the clock hanging in the wall above the bar,

"In about 15 minutes, a movie starts. I'm not really sure what it's about, but it sounded like a funny one. I think it was called _she's the man_. Grace said it was funny, at least. And since I know nothing of these movie things, she was my best source at the moment",

Hermione raised an eyebrow at me.

"Grace is muggle born. Anyway after the movie I will take you to this restaurant she recommended and hope for the best. After that I will have to improvise for a while until it's time for us to leave again".

Once again she raised an eyebrow at me. She opened her mouth and was about to talk, but I knew what she was about to say, so before she had the time to say anything, I spoke;

"No, I won't tell you what happens after that. It's a suprise. I think you will like that one even more than this. I just hope you are prepared for a long night".

Once again she crossed her arms and pouted, but didn't say anything about it. We finished our drinks and then we stood up. I grabbed her around her wrist and pulled her along with me. She carefully removed her hand from my grip. It stung inside me and already missed the feeling of her skin. The sadness was short, though. Right away she took a hold if my hand. I looked at her, she had a shy smile, almost like she was insecure if it was okay. I smiled back at her.

Seconds later we entered the room where they were supposed to show the movie. I had never been to a movie theater before, but I was sure this wasn't how it usually around the room on platforms there were chairs and couches. Comfy ones too, it seemed, and all with a good view to the screen. I looked at Hermione to get some kind of hint from her. From the amazed look on her face, she had never seen a theater like this. Neither one of us said anything, we just walked inside the room and found ourselves a couch far back.

The movie began, and at first we sat at different ends of the couch, no longer holding hands.  
>It seemed strange first, the movie. I didn't really understand why it was supposed to be funny. After about 30 minutes, it actually was a little funny and I chuckled a little. Hermione turned to me and smiled before she began to move closer to me. I laid my arm on the back of the couch, she snuggled up against me and rested her head against my shoulder.<br>We sat like that through the rest of the movie, and I was happy about it. I wished this never had to end.  
>About an hour or so later the movie was over and we began to move again. I felt stiff because I had been in the same position for so long. I stood up and stretched. Boy, that was good. I glanced at Hermione and noticed she did the same thing. I began to walk when I didn't feel so stiff anymore and she followed me. I hadn't walked far when I noticed her hand grabbed mine. I turned to her and saw she smiled at me. What else could I do but smile back at her? This was the way it should have been from the very beginning. I became angry with myself. Why the bloody hell did I have to act like I did back then? Subconsciously I wished she would slap me. No, I wished she would beat the living crap out of me, showing me her anger and frustration. I knew i deserved it. And I knew she was angry, she had to be. There was no way in hell she could be this calm about it all and forgive me this easy.<p>

I mentally slapped myself as we walked out to the cold, Russian, fall air. I had to deal with this later when I got back home. I didn't want to ruin our perfect night with this.

"Are you alright?",

Hermione asked me. I looked at her and smiled. Not even I was fooled by the fake smile, but it had to do for now.

"Sure, I'm fine. I'm just really hungry. Want to get something to eat?"

It wasn't exactly a lie, I was hungry, and I was sort of fine, just a moment of weakness. She raised an eyebrow at me. I guess she didn't really buy it.

"Right. We'll talk about it later. If you weren't a Weasly and you are hungry at all times, I would have forced you to tell me what's bothering you right now. Besides, I'm hungry myself. Where are we going?"

I wasn't sure how to react to that, she seemed to be taking that a little too easy. I either had to prepare for hell later, or she was drugged on some muggle stuff. Either option wasn't going to end very well. I gave her another fake smile, not as fake as the last one, tough, and answered her;

"Grace recommend this restaurant down the street, I think it was called _two worlds_. She said they have really great food there".

She nodded and we began to walk. She was still holding on to my hand, but I honestly didn't mind it.  
>We walked in silence for a few minutes before we reached the place.<br>I paused for a moment and Hermione gave me a quizzical look,

"Something wrong, Ginny?".

I shook my head,

"No. No, everything is great. I just have a hard time believing I'm really here with you. It's just amazing",

I paused for a moment again before I continued speaking,

"I just have to tell you one thing, Hermione. I'm really sorry for everything. This is the way it should have been from the beginning, you and me together. I wish this were different. I really am sorry. I'll never ask for your forgiveness, I don't deserve that, I just hope you will let me try again".

She didn't move, she didn't speak. Shit, I was so in for it. I would _so_ be hearing this later.  
>She stood like that for a few moments before she finally spoke;<p>

"It doesn't matter. We'll talk about this later. Tonight is not the time. Let's go inside".

She let go of my hand and turned around to walk inside. I quickly followed her.  
>The place was amazing. Perfect. It wasn't big and glory, but cozy and intimate. Simply perfect for a first date. We found ourselves a table as far in a corner as we possibly could. That way we could more easily hide from anyone. I knew that back in England we would be the hottest couple in at least a decade, and considering how my team was the favorite out of country team of most Russian witches and wizards nowadays, and what the war had done to Russia, I was certain this place would be no different. Moments later, I was proved right.<br>A waitress arrived, looking at her notebook,

"What can I get you?".

She sounded bored.

"I'll have salad for starter, then I would like the largest portion of steak you have with everything on the side, and then I would like to finish with a yorkshire pudding. And I would like a butterbeer to drink".

She looked at Hermione just half a moment after she began to speak again,

"And what..."

She became silent and looked at me. She continued like that for a few moments, looking between me and Hermione with her mouth open. Suddenly she seemed to regain her ability to speak again,

"NO WAY",

she almost shouted. Both me and Hermione began to hush at her so she wouldn't draw attention to us. Neither one of us wanted that.

"Ginny Weasly, the famous quidditch player, and Hermione Granger, the famous war hero who saved the world. Wow, this is amazing",

she said in broken English,

"Great work against puddlemere, miss Weasly",

I nodded and muttered a quiet

"Thank you",

and the waitress turned to look at Hermione. She seemed most interested in her.

"Where have you been? The whole wizarding world has been looking for you since the war ended? Where have you been hiding?".

Hermione stiffened at her questions,

"I have been moving around quite a bit. Sorry, but I'm not really interested in talking about the war and the following years. They have been tough".

The waitress nodded and returned her attention to her notebook,

"Yes. Of course. When the time is right, I'm sure everyone will be dying to know your story. What can I get you? It's on the house, whatever you two want tonight".

Hermione relaxed a little, but certainly not much,

"Nobody cares about my story, it's the same as the other stories I'm sure you have already heard. And for food, I would like salad for starters too, and chicken for the main course and I'll have an Irish coffee instead of dessert, please".

The waitress nodded as she wrote down Hermiones order. As she turned around and was about to walk away, Hermione spoke again,

"Oh. And may I please ask you one more thing?".

The waitress turned back towards us again and nodded,

"Can you please not tell anyone about this? You said something about people wanting my story and stuff, but I really don't want people running down either one of out apartments, and me and Ginny has alot of stuff we need to work out, so privacy is highly appreciated. And your silence would be great".

Again, the waitress nodded at Hermiones words,

"Sure thing. You are so cute together, by the way. I hope the two of you work things out",

Then she smiled and walked away. About fifteen minutes later, our meals arrived.  
>When we had finished dinner, our desserts was put in front of us, well, my dessert, and Hermiones coffee.<p>

"What is that, really?",

I asked and pointed at the large glass in front of her.

"It's Irish coffee. Coffee the Irish way",

She winked jokingly at me, probably expecting me to understand what she meant. I cocked my head and raised an eyebrow at her,

"The Irish way? What's that supposed to mean? All green and lucky?".

She chuckled,

"Never heard of Irish coffee? Here, taste it, I'll tell you what it contains afterwards".

She handed me the large glass. I was sceptic as I accepted it and carefully sniffed it. Hermione chuckled and urged me on,

"Go on, it's safe, I promise".

Carefully I took one small sip, and almost spat it right back out again,

"Hermione, something's wrong with your coffee".

I pushed the glass back to her, and glared at her, she was laughing really hard now. Between hic-ups, she managed to say something,

"You.. should have... seen.. your face... amazing".

I huffed and focused on my own dessert. I picked up a spoonful of pudding and was about to eat it when an idea hit me.  
>Oh, but I couldn't do it, could I? She would be so angry. But then again, it's just for fun, and we can clean it up again rather quickly.<p>

_**Splash**_

A spoonful of pudding hit Hermione on her chin. She stopped laughing right away. She looked at me, but didn't say anything. She didn't really have any expression at all.  
>Shit. Was she angry with me? She just wiped it away and turned back to her coffee and drank it up in silence. She stood up and was about to walk away when she turned to look at me again,<p>

"I'll me right back. I just need to use the bathroom for a moment".

I nodded, but continued to look at her until I saw her walk around the corner. Soon she was back. She seemed a little more pleased now, but I couldn't really point my finger to why.  
>When she was back, I had almost finished my dessert. She sat back down at her seat, but right away she asked me;<p>

"What should we do next? It's getting late now",

She glanced at the watch above the counter, and her has dropped,

"Bloody hell, it's 1:30 in the morning already".

My eyes went wide, I had one more thing planned for us before the finale of the date. If she didn't love me after this night, she never would.  
>I grabbed her hand and looked at her,<p>

"Come on. We aren't finished yet. I have a couple of more things for us to do. First is for us to get out of here. Care for a walk with me?"

She nodded her head and stood up. We walked towards the door, and was almost there when the waitress came running after us,

"Wait miss Ginny, you forgot something".

I was sure I hadn't forgotten anything, but turned around and faced her. What a mistake. She stood right behind me when I turned around.

_**Splash**_

I got a really close look at a raspberry pie. I wiped away the pie from my eyes and glared at Hermione. She stood doubled up, laughing.

"Priceless",

She managed to choke out between laughs. I kept glaring at her,

"It was your idea, wasn't it?".

She just nodded, unable to speak.  
>A few moments later, she took a few deep breaths and pulled herself together, she was down to a little giggling now and then, but she clearly tried her best to keep from breaking into another fit of hysterical laughing. I slowly wiped some more pie off of my face, and gathered some of it in my hand. Calmly I lifted it and smeared it all over Hermiones face. Served her right. I expected her to begin pouting or something like that, but instead the pulled me in close to her. She smiled that dazzling smile of hers, the one that always made my knees weak. I began to breathe just a little bit heavier, and wonder if she was about to kiss me. She slowly leaned towards me. Oh god, she was really going to kiss me. Wrong. She went past my face and leaned close to my ear and whispered,<p>

"Revenge is a dish best served cold, love".

She nibbled at my ear as she removed herself from me. I felt a tingle deep down in my stomach. God, how I wanted her. I looked at her in mock fear as she took a step away from me,

"Oh no. How afraid I am of the wrath of Hermione Granger. I dare not be anywhere near her for a moment longer".

Her reply to this was a raised eyebrow and a short

"Too bad, you can't stay away from me anymore, you know".

She's damn right about that. I couldn't if I tried. I had to be close to her, and work my way back. I wasn't going to leave her side more than necessary. And I was glad she was aware of that. She chuckled a little before she spoke again,

"Shall we go, then? I believe you mentioned a walk?"

I nodded and went to open the door for her,

"Let's walk."


	16. Date night, part 2

**A/N: I got so many apologies now. First of all for the length of the chapter, or rather the lack of length. I know it's really short, but I was kind of stuck at this chapter, not quite sure how to proceed, but suddenly it kind of just loosened. I guess I kind of just felt inspiration and motivation just flowed to me. Which brings me to my second apology. I'm really sorry it has taken this long to update. Like I said, I've been kind of stuck at this chapter, unable to figure out where this was leading. But now I have gotten past this tiny bump in the road, I'm feeling pretty sure I will be able to continue the story a little more easily.**

**Now, I know there is a few out there who has been waiting for this chapter, so without further ado, here it comes :) **

_**-B**_

**(HERMIONE'S POV)**

We walked up the street. She was a step ahead of me. Ginny was silent, I wondered if she was angry with me for my little prank with the pie. I wasn't going to deal with her being angry with me. I grabbed her shoulder and made her stop and face me,

"Something wrong? You haven't said a word since we left almost 15 minutes ago. Why?"

"It's nothing, I'm just planning my revenge. Come on, now. I have something else for us to do".

I had no idea of what she was planning for us this time. Just like I had no idea of anything about this night before it happened. It was really annoying. I had never been a huge fan of surprises, and especially after the war, surprises wasn't very high on the list of things I enjoyed.  
>Ginny dragged me along down the street with me stumbling after and groaning loud, clearly showing how much displeasure she brought me right now.<p>

"Oh, shut up, Hermione. I know you will love this, nearly as much as you will love what comes after that again,"

Ginny happily said, nearly singing and skipping down the street.

Suddenly she came to a stop, making me nearly bump in to her as I tried to stop as well.

Hermione was confused. In front of them now, was an open field with a few trees here and there.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, trying very hard to mentally figure out any possible reason why Ginny would take me to such a place.

With a giant grin, Ginny turned to face me, "we are going to a place I was recommended to show you if we had the time. Come on now. We have a couple of hours hike ahead of us."

Ginny turned and began to walk in high speed, while I just stood back, stunned and unable to move for a few moment.

"A couple of hours hike? Is she nuts?" I whispered to myself before I ran after her, shouting.

"Ginny! Wait up!"

As I caught up with her, she slowed down her pace, but just a little. I still felt like I was jogging to keep up with her.

"Ginny, would you please stop for a moment. I'm not as quick as you, remember? Just stop, please,"

Ginny stopped, and thank God for that, I was already out of breath.

"Sorry, I forgot. I'm used to hanging out with the other girls at the team, going for hikes and stuff. It's rather high speed. Anyway, we need to get going, we got something else later we need to catch."

Ginny turned, and began walking again,

"Wait," I said. "Two hours? Why don't we just apparate there or something? Two hours of a hike is a rather long walk, you know."

"Don't worry," Ginny said from ahead of me, "it's just to make the time go until that last thing we got."

I groaned, but followed at a much slower pace than Ginny was currently holding.

After about 15 minutes, I reached her, she was sitting down on a rock, resting her head on her hand.

She looked up at me when I arrived, completely out of breath,

"There you are. What took you so long?"

I sat down, leaning my back on the rock Ginny was sitting at,

"I…I…I tried…To…I tried to…Keep…Up…With…You…" I barely managed to say between breaths.

Ginny just giggled. "What? I though you would be able to at least almost keep up with me. I think to remember you were rather light on the foot in our school days, and with all the hiking you did during the war, I was sure you would be in a little better shape than this, you know."

I could feel a sorrow coming over me when she mentioned the war. How were Harry and Ron really? How could it be I had lost them this much since the war?

I knew Ron was doing pretty ok, from the few letters I had received from him over the last years, but Harry I didn't know much about. He wasn't in the news every other day anymore, not even once a year, only when he accomplished something huge at work, capturing still active death eaters and stuff. But other than that, I knew nothing of him. I had to remember to write them both sometime soon.

Thinking of my old friends, those I shared everything with for so many years, was enough to almost bring tears to my eyes.

"Hermione? Are you okay? Was it something I said?"

Ginny was worried, I could hear it so clearly in her voice.

I turned to look at her,

"No, everything is fine. I was just wondering about how things turned out the way they did. You know, after the war and stuff."

At this I stood back up and prepared to start walking again,

"But let's not talk about this now. We still have a long walk ahead of us."

Ginny got back up too, and walked to stand behind me.

She was quiet for a moment, probably choosing her words with care before she dared to say anything, afraid of saying something wrong.

Her voice was weak when she finally spoke again, "yes, you are right. There is a time and a place to talk about the war, but this is not it."

She placed her hand on my arm in a calming way. I felt calmed too, but not much. Mostly I felt puzzled, I didn't mention the war, did I?

"Come on, Hermione. Let's move on. I really want to show you this. I think you will appreciate this quite a bit."

The next hour or so, we walked in silence. Neither one of us felt a great need to fill the silence. It felt good just walking like this. The silence wasn't even awkward. I can't even remember the last time when silence wasn't awkward.

"What time is it?" Ginny asked.

I took a good look at her watch,

"It's 5 AM. Why?"

"SHOOT! Looks like we are apparating from here. Take my hand."

I obliged dutifully and grabbed Ginny's hand.

Within a second they stood before a huge statue. A memorial.


	17. The Memorial

**A/N: Okay, I have to admit, I really don't know what happened to this story. I just forgot it even existed. I stumbled over this again yesterday, and I started reading it, and when I finished, I was thinking "shit, I wish the author updates soon". I then see who wrote it, and I feel really, really embarrassed when I see it belongs to me :/ So I decided I needed to continue this now. I also noticed it's been over a year since I updated it D: Well, to anyone who cares, I'm truly sorry about that!**

**Oh well, let's get this thing started, then. It's from Hermione's POV.**

We were standing in front of a huge statue of sorts. It was a memorial. A war memorial.

In front of us, at least 20 feet tall, she was standing on Harrys right side. On Harrys left side was Ron. All three of them standing with their wands pointed in front of them. In front of Harry and Hermione, below their wands, was Dobby.

I felt tears well up in my eyes. Why on earth would Ginny take me to show something like this? Wasn't tonight about us and a new start for us?

"It's amazing, isn't it?"

Ginny had moved to stand behind me and rested one hand on my shoulder.

I turned to look at her.

"Why are we here? What is this?"

"This is a memorial. A war memorial, to be more specific. Look at the plaque."

I turned back towards the statue and walked over to it and kneeled before the plaque.

_Late March, 1998. A battle was fought at Malfoy Manor when Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasly escaped after they had been captured by snatchers earlier the same day. Dobby, a free house-elf, and ever faithful towards Harry Potter and his friends, were the one to save them. He was killed in the heroic process by Bellatrix LeStrange. He was buried at the Shell Cottage in a grave dug by hand by Harry Potter._

_On May 2__nd__, the great battle of Hogwarts stood. This was the last battle in the second wizarding war, the battle where Harry Potter finally won over Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort. Harry Potter had great help from his friends, Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger. Together they ended the war and made both worlds a better place to be._

_We all hail you!_

A little further down, a familiar handwriting had carved in,

_In loving memory of Dobby, the bravest house-elf to ever have lived._

I had tears in my eyes, but I didn't know what I was feeling about all of this. I was angry, confused and moved by all of this. But I was really pissed that they hadn't asked my permission to put up a 20 feet statue of me in Russia. They had no rights to do so, no matter what I had done in the past.

I stood up again and turned to face Ginny, who were still standing in the same spot,

"What is this?"

Ginny looked confused,

"It's a war memorial. I told you that."

I shook my head,

"Yes, I know that. But why did they do this? When did they do this? And why didn't they tell me about this?"

"They did it about 3 years after the war, when things began to calm down and go back to as normal as things could be. They did it to honour you, you know. And they did try to tell you about this, they tried to contact you for weeks before they began the project. But they never found you, so they found someone to take the decision for you."

I was getting angry now. Who thought they could make MY decisions for me? Who thought they could just proceed with this thing? I didn't want this. I was still a person in my right mind, perfectly capable of taking care of such business myself.

"Who?" was all I managed to ask without bursting into complete anger and madness. I was already curling my hands into fists, doing my very best to keep calm.

Ginny looked wary at me, almost as if she was afraid to say something wrong, or even something at all.

"Me," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I thought you wouldn't mind. I thought you would appreciate it. Be glad people remembered you, and still thought of you. I'm sorry."

She took a few steps towards me, but I responded with taking equally many steps away from her. It would be a very bad idea for her to get any closer to me now.

"Why the fuck did you do that?" I spat out between gritted teeth.

"I thought you would appreciate it. Hermione, I'm sorry. I really am. Please don't get mad at me."

Ginny looked like she was on the verge of crying now. But for the first time in my life, I actually didn't care one bit.

"What on earth made you think I would appreciate a 20 foot tall statue of me in the middle of Russia? What on earth made you think I would ever appreciate a statue of or even a word to remind me of the horrors I had to face during the war?"

"Hermione. I'm sorry, I really am. I really thought you would appreciate seeing this. Please, don't be mad with me".

I was shaking. I couldn't quite explain why I was this furious about this. Sure, they had put up a huge statue of me without asking me about it, but by now, the rational part of my brain understood why they did it, and why Ginny wanted to show me this.

Tears were falling down Ginny's face, but still I couldn't make myself care one bit about it. All I could think of, was getting back to my apartment and lock myself up with a bottle or two of firewhisky.

"Ginny, I'd like to go home now", I said with a firm voice, trying to keep it steady. As soon as the words left my mouth, I heard how harsh they sounded, but still I didn't care for nothing but getting home as soon as possible.

Ginny looked hurt.

"But Hermione. There is still one thing I would like to take you to. Can't you wait for just another hour? Please?"

I could see it in her eyes, that last thing, was what she was most excited about. This was something she really wanted me to see.

"No, I don't want to wait for another hour. I want to go back home. Right this instant."

Ginny straightened up, and crossed her arms. She looked at me with a firm look, not breaking eye contact,

"No. I don't want to take you home. Not yet. I know I promised to take you home as soon as you wanted to, but right now I'm going to break that promise. I want you to stay right here with me and do that one last thing with me. That's all I'm asking. I can take you home afterwards if you still want to then, but I sure as hell won't take you home now."

I blinked stupidly a couple of times before I managed to wrap my head around what she just had said. When that was done, I became angrier than what I already was.

"Fine! Then I'll find myself some other way home on my own".

I'm pretty sure Ginny wasn't expecting this. I'm sure she took me for some helpless woman, unable to figure out a way home on my own without apparating myself. She was stunned, and by the looks of it, unable to move her body in any way. I wasn't even sure she was breathing at the moment.

I turned around and began walking in the same direction I hoped we had come from. Considering we had apparated and unknown distance, I could only walk away, and hope for the best.

"Hermione! Wait up."

Ginny came running after me, but instead of stopping to wait for her, I increased my speed. I was almost jogging away from her now.

"Hermione…"

"Stop it, Ginny. Just leave me alone. I don't want this. Just go away"

Ginny caught up with me and grabbed my arm. I had to stop. She forced me to turn around and look at her.

"Let go of me," I said with as much anger in my voice as I could manage.

Unfortunately for me, Ginny is very well trained and much stronger than me, so I weren't able to twist out of her grip.

"No, Hermione. I'm not going to let you go again. I've done that once before, and that's what landed us here in the first place. You are going to listen to me, now."

I tried once more to twist out of her grip, but of course it didn't work this time either.

"Fine. Whatever. Just say what you got to say, and let me get out of here."

Ginny released the grip she had on me and took me over to a large rock where we sat down.  
>She sighed, playing with her fingers.<p>

"You know. I love you. I always have. Those letters you sent me over the years have been the only thing keeping me sane. Not even quidditch could keep me sane. That last letter you sent me, where you said it was your last letter, I was sure you were going to kill yourself. I was sure I was losing you for good. I just couldn't stand the idea of losing you for real, and that's why I came that night. I…"

"You came just because of that? So if I hadn't sent that letter, you would never have come? Gee. Thanks, Ginny. You really do know how to make a woman feel appreciated."

I stood up, ready to leave.

"Hermione, wait. I didn't mean it like that"

She bowed her head, almost like in shame.

I crossed my arms,

"Oh really. Then how did you mean it?"

"It's just that, over all those years, I always knew you were just within reach. Just a second away. All I ever needed was to grow a pair, and get over it, you know."

I walked away, but before I left her, I turned and screamed at her,

"THEN WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU?".

Exactly how I got home, I can't remember. I just know that it took me a few hours, and suddenly, there I were, all by myself.

_**[20 minutes later]**_

There was a knock on the door.

I decided to ignore it. I wasn't in the mood to talk to Ginny right now. I just wanted to be left alone.


	18. Could it be over?

**A/N: Okay, so this took a while.. It's almost a year to the day, actually (last update was May 31****st**** 2014) :O Whooops.. But that doesn't mean I have forgotten about this or you guys, it's just that the last year has been absolutely insane. I'm not going to make a lot of excuses, though. I got a long list of them, and not nearly enough time to write them all down. But the schedule is looking to clear up a bit in the future, so I should be able to post some more soon enough. I can't wait to get back to writing, again :D **

**I'm not making promises to when the next chapter comes, though. We all know I'm absolutely terrible at keeping the promises I make.**

**Anyway, I'm not going to drag this out any longer, so here's the chapter. It's from George's POV, this time around.**

I was knocking on Hermione's door. This was mainly out of politeness, because I was going to talk to her, whether she let me in or not.

She didn't answer. But I knew she was in there. I could feel her being on the other side of the door.

I knocked again, giving her one more chance to open up the door and invite me in.  
>Still no answer.<p>

I take out my wand and unlocks the door on my own. She needs to hear what I have to say.

"_HERMIONE! I know you are in here! You better come out here and talk to me"_

She appeared from the kitchen, holding a half empty bottle of firewhiskey in her hand,

"_What? What do you want?"_

I just looked at her. This was not good. She had been on her own for less than 30 minutes, and she was already too drunk and looked like a mess. This was not good at all.

I walked over to her and tried to get the bottle from her. That only resulted in me getting whacked over the head.

"_Stay the fuck away from me, George. Why are you even here? It's not like it's any of your business anyway."_

I went over to the couch and sat down. I patted the seat next to me, signaling for her to sit down with me and talk.

She just had another, rather large, sip of her firewhiskey and went for one of the chairs instead.  
>Even though she was inside, she lit up a cigarette. She used the floor as the ashtray.<p>

"_Well? What is it you want? Talk, so I can get you out of here as soon as possible"._

I took a deep breath. I wasn't even sure myself why I were here. All I knew was that something went wrong, and that Ginny was back at the Burrow, crying her eyes out.

"_I just want to know what happened. Ginny came to my place moments after you left her in the woods. She was almost hysterical, freaking out about screwing everything up. Care to tell me what she was talking about?"_

Hermione just rolled her eyes and scoffed,

"_Well, apparently she thought it was a great idea to show me this stupid monument in bloody Russia, not even considering how I would feel about it. And just to top it off, she said she was the one who had given them permission to build it, because the stupid ministry couldn't be bothered to try hard enough to find me and ask me themselves"._

Oh shit. This was worse than I thought. I walked over to the chair she sat in and sat down on the armrest. When I was about to sit down, she just got up and walked away from me. Okay. This was going to be difficult, but I needed her to listen to me, so I walked over to her and snatched the bottle out of her hand and dragged her back to the chair where I pushed her back in. She was protesting loudly, but I just ignored her. I needed to be hard on her if she were going to listen to me.

I leaned over her in the chair, one hand on each armrest, trapping her in the chair. She was pissed off. I feared that she might kill me.

"_Now you listen to me, you little twat. Ginny didn't do any of it to hurt you. The ministry looked for you for more than a year without finding you. Eventually they had to find someone who were willing to make a decision on your bloody behalf. Ginny was your best friend, she knew you better than anyone, that's why she was the one to do it. She believed this was what you would have wanted. She believed, and still believes, that you would want the world to remember what happened, that they needed a reminder of everything that happened to keep it from happening again. She came up with the idea of including Dobby on that memorial because she knew you would be upset if he weren't there after he saved your bloody lives. I don't know why nobody else thought about it, but she did. She knew it would be important that he was there too. Equal to all of you other meatheads. She took you there because she wanted to show you how much you matter to her. She loves you so much, Hermione. I have never seen anyone love someone the way she loves you. But right now, the way you are acting, the way you just treated her, you don't deserve her. And if you don't suck it up, then maybe she's better off without you"._

I stood up again. I was angry with her right now. She had hurt my little sister. But no matter how angry I was, even I knew the last part there was over the line. There was nobody in the world I would rather have my sister spend her life with, than Hermione Granger. I knew there was no way Ginny would ever be better off without Hermione. I knew how much suffering my dear little sister had been trough over the last few years because she was too much of a chicken to suck it up. But I needed Hermione to understand what she was doing, what she was throwing away if she didn't suck it up.

But nothing in the world would ever prepare me for what came next. Hermione was up in my face, just millimeters away from me. Her voice was ice cold when she spoke,

"_Boo, fucking, hoo. I hurt her feelings by letting her know how I felt about being treated like a child, not even being able to decide if a 20 foot statue of me were to stand in the middle of BLOODY RUSSIA for eternity. Guess what, she broke my heart 7 years ago when she told me she never wanted to see me again, when she told me she held me personally responsible for Fred's death. She broke my heart when she sent me the first letter. Again when she sent me the second letter. Not to mention every time she didn't answer any of my letters to her. Oh, and let's not forget about every time she sent you, or one of your brothers to check if I were still alive, instead of showing up herself. You know what, I'm sick of this bullshit. I'm not going to let her just walk back in to my life like that. It's not fair that she gets to do it. Maybe I'm better off without her."_

I was in shock. I had never heard her talk like that before. Not so cold and careless. This was even hurting me. I was not sure how I would fix this, but something had to be done. I had to try again tomorrow. I knew there was no way I would be doing anyone any good tonight. Not with Hermione drunk and Ginny with a broken heart back home.  
>Without another word, I just turned around and left. As I closed the door behind me, I could hear Hermione yelling<p>

"_Cowards. Both of you",_

at me, before she threw something at the door. Probably a bottle, because whatever she threw, it broke. I'm guessing the bottle was empty too.

From the hallway, I apparated back to the burrow, where I found Ginny curled up on the couch, resting her head in our mothers lap.  
>I went over to her and sat down on my knees next to her on the floor. I kissed her on the forehead and stroked my hand over her hair,<p>

"_How are you doing?"_

Ginny just sniffled and wiped away her tears.

"_Okay. Come with me, will you? I've just talked to Hermione. I think you need to hear what she had to say"._

Ginny stood up and waited for me to show the way,

"_Just go ahead outside, will you? I'll meet you there in just a minute"._

Ginny silently sniffled again and walked ahead outside.  
>I quickly looked at mom. She seemed to understand what she needed to do,<p>

"_I'll go right away. Is it bad?"_

She was already up and standing, ready to go. I just nodded at her and headed towards the door to find Ginny.  
>The both of us disappeared to each of our destinations, she to find Hermione and me to find Ginny.<p>

When I came outside, I could see Ginny sitting on the hill, watching as the sun was rising. She wasn't shaking any more, just sitting there. When I approached her, she just looked up at me, completely calm as if nothing much had happened.

"_How are you feeling?"_, I asked as I sat down next to her.

"_Numb"._

That was all she said. There was no emotion in her words, there was nothing. She was completely empty.

We sat in silence, watching the sun rise, bringing us a new day. I couldn't get myself to ruin it by talking about Hermione, so we sat in silence, just watching. We didn't speak for at least another hour. Not until she asked me about Hermione. So I told her the story.


End file.
